Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur are through to the semis of the NextGen ATP Finals thanks to their respective wins on Wednesday in Milan. Tsitsipas defeated Frances Tiafoe 4-3(3), 4-3(5), 4-2, while de Minaur also improved to a perfect 2-0 by beating Andrey Rublev 4-1, 3-4(5), 4-1, 4-2.
Tsitsipas, who began his Milan campaign with a victory over Jaume Munar, saved the only two break points he faced against Tiafoe.
“I never dropped my performance,” the top-seeded Greek assessed. “I always stayed at 100 per cent almost, so [I am] very satisfied that I managed to stay calm and play every point like a match point. Hopefully I can play like this in every match that I’ll be playing here.”
De Minaur held off Rublev in a back-and-forth, one-hour and 24-minute affair in which the Russian took the second set in a tiebreaker but lost the other three in relatively routine fashion. Perhaps the key to the match was the 19-year-old Aussie’s abuse of his opponent’s second serve, winning 17 of 22 such points.
Highlights:
“It was great,” de Minaur assured. “I knew coming in it was going to be a really tough match and I was going to have to play some really good tennis and not leave too many balls short because his forehand is seriously one of the most dangerous weapons out there on the tour. I’m really happy with my win. I thought I executed my game-plan really well and served really well.
“It’s not over yet,” de Minaur added, even though he has already advanced to the semis. “Every match counts. I’m very happy with my win today and it’s been a great year, but tomorrow’s another day and you’ve got to get back out there and keep doing the same.”
In other results, Hubert Hurkacz beat Jaume Munar 4-2, 4-2, 2-4, 3-4(5), 4-1 and Taylor Fritz got the best of Italian wild card Liam Caruana 1-4, 4-1, 4-3(9), 4-2
Thursday matches
Tiafoe vs. Munar
Rublev vs. Caruana
De Minaur vs. Fritz
Tsitsipas vs. Hurkacz
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Tsitsi-Demon should be the final
Well done to both!
I like Tsitsipas, he has the combinations of three greats – the look of Borg, the style of Fed and the patience and temperament of Rafa. The way he moves , ie light footed like Fed, I think it’ll help him not to get injured easily despite his 6’4” frame. Love the way he strikes his BH, and his serve is already very good but can still improve further, maybe learn to serve like Fed? Needs to improve his ROS and court position (standing too far behind baseline, unless you’re as quick as Rafa, you won’t be quick enough to cover so much ground).
If Fed’s serve was “learnable” absolutely everyone would serve like Fed! Agree that Tsitsi and the rest of #NextGen has plenty of room for improvement.
Tsitsi v the Demon should be an interesting final. I like the Demon a lot but he’s probably too short to win slams these days. We’ll see.
It’s learnable! Tsitsipas already has a good to great serve; what he needs to learn is to not let his opponents guess where he’s serving to, ie how to hide it from his opponent until it already leaves his racket. IOWs, Tsitsipas already has good basic to start with , unlike a Rafa or Murray or Djoko.
His game is like Federers.
Reminds me a bit of Vitas Geralaitis,too.
Tsitsipas is getting it right these days, ie he knows when to move forward to attack at the right time, not unlike Khachanov. However, Khachanov has done it better in that his defense is also very good, imo better than Tsitsipas.
De Minaur’s style is not unlike Goffin or Kei or Davy, ie moving forward to take the ball early very often. They’re all diminutive in size hence that’s the good way of playing, taking time away from their opponents and not drawn into power based baseline war. I think De Minaur will do better than all of his similar style predecessors, seems a determined guy not giving up and having Hewitt as his coach, perhaps he’ll get a slam or two among his peers, after the big three retire.
Tiafoe!!!
I like that Tsitsipas prefers to solve his problems on court on his own and not wanting to have his father coaching him during changeover. He’s really playing well at the moment.
Tsitsipas is the better player but may still lose to the grinder – De Minaur …. http://www.138mph.com/stefanos-tsitsipas-versus-alex-de-minaur-analysis-of-playing-styles-and-atp-nextgen-finals-between-them/
Congrats to Tsitsipas, winner of the second Next Gen Final. The final between him and De Minaur was very well played; good attacking tennis by both; the two may form a great rivalry in the future. Well done to both, esp Tsitsipas!
I was willing Tsitsipas to win the title. He is such a fighter. Apart from the lapse in the semi final, which is the first time as far as I know he has received a warning, his conduct on court is impeccable. Agree with Lucky the final was an exciting match to watch. The future of tennis is in good hands with this bunch of Next Gen players 😋
Yes Ed, with Khachanov too on the rise, and Coric is not bad too. I even think that this next gen players may win slam(s) before Raonic’s generation! They’re younger and without the mental burden against the big three – some have already beaten Fed and Djoko lately – and they come of age at the right time when the big three are nearing the tail end of their dominance.
I feel Khachanov, followed by Tsitsipas, may be ready to win slams in the next two years. I’m not sure about Sasha, as I feel he tends to drag on in a match unnecessarily esp in BO5.
Khachanov is also 6’6” like Sasha but is physically more robust; Tsitsipas is more light footed than Sasha so I feel he may be like Fed, ie not prone to injury. Sasha has to learn to shorten points if not he may be prone to injury for his tall frame.