French Open: Tsitsipas Quells Altmaier Fightback To Reach Third Round

French Open: Tsitsipas quells Altmaier fightback to reach third round (Image Source: IANS)

Court Suzanne Lenglen: The 2021 Roland Garros finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece encountered some anxious moments but found a way to reach the third round in Paris for the sixth time, beating a resilient Daniel Altmaier under the roof on Court Suzanne Lenglen in the French Open here on Wednesday.

In a hard-fought second-round men's singles match, Tsitsipas overcame his 25-year-old German opponent 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-4 in two hours and 45 minutes.

Just as he did in his opening-round match, a 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-1 victory over talented Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, Tsitsipas was out of the gates fast against Altmaier, taking charge of the run of play from the first ball.

Tsitsipas broke in the fourth game of set one and dropped just six points on serve in the opening set. The Greek then pegged the accelerator, reeling off five games from 5-2 in the opener to lead 6-3, 4-0. He jumped to a two-sets-to-love lead in just about an hour. But just when it looked like he would romp to a straight-sets win, the German mounted a comeback, posing significant challenges for Tsitsipas.

Just three days after defeating Laslo Djere in the longest match of the first round (5:04), Altmaier surged to life in the third set, summoning his very best to throw Tsitsipas off the victory trail. The 83rd-ranked Altmaier, who took out then-world No.8 Matteo Berrettini to reach the round of 16 in the 2020 French Open, struck gold in the third-set tiebreak, playing a series of breathtaking points to claim the stanza.

In the fourth set, the struggle continued, a trade of breaks leaving the antagonists on serve at 4-4, before Tsitsipas kicked into overdrive and powered through the finish line, finally dashing Altmaier’s hopes in two hours and 43 minutes.

With a 15-3 record on his favourite surface in 2024 (49-12 since the start of 2022), 2024 Monte-Carlo champion Tsitsipas has once again emerged as a threat to make a deep run in Paris. Add in the fact that he’s a former finalist who has made the second week in each of his last five appearances on the Parisian clay and you’d be remiss not to consider the Greek as a candidate to lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires next Sunday.