Stefanos Tsitsipas had a hard time with the cheeky Czech Zdenek Kolar. The qualifier forced the Greek into three tie-breaks and pushed him harder than he would have liked. In the end, however, the favorite prevailed, following Casper Ruud and Daniil Medvedev.
Stefanos Tsitsipas had to bite through the match.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas really had to fight the cheeky Zdenek Kolar. After the qualifier lost the first set against the Greek 3:6, hardly anyone thought that the match would develop into a real thriller. But that was the case. Kolar increased more and more, played cool and challenged Tsitsipas more than he would have liked.
Tsitsipas got the second set in the tie-braek, but the pressure remained high – and his nerves were shaky. Round three was also decided in a tie-break, but this time in favor of the underdog, who had the fans largely behind them. Tsitsipas had to fight even more, but still couldn’t dominate the match – and had to go into the tie-break again. At first it looked good for Kolar, who was already 5:2 ahead. But then his nerves kicked in too, the Czech made too many mistakes and ended up empty-handed.
Tsitspas won 6: 3, 7: 6, 6: 7, 7: 6 and trembled into the next round under the applause of his parents.
Medvedev and Ruud easily continue
In the morning, number 8 on the seed list, Casper Ruud, had no trouble against Emil Ruusuvuori from Finland – the Norwegian clearly won in three sets (6:3, 6:4, 6:2). Daniil Medvedev (2) did the same as Ruud, 6: 3, 6: 4 and 6: 3 was the result against the Serb Laslo Djere after a concentrated performance by the Russian, who again meets a man from Serbia in the next round.
Miomir Kecmanovic defeated Kazakh Alexander Bublik in four sets 4: 6, 7: 5, 6: 2, 6: 1 and once again underlined that he made a leap in performance in 2022.
