Defending Citi Open champion Alexander Zverev will take on Greek teen Stefanos Tsitsipas for a spot in the Citi Open final in a battle of the young guns. The winner will go up against either Andrey Rublev or Alex de Minaur.
(1) Alexander Zverev vs. (10) Stefanos Tsitsipas
Germany’s Alexander Zverev has a couple of titles in 2018, both on clay. He is looking for his first hard-court title of the year this week as he attempts to defend his points as last year’s champion. Zverev had a tidy win over his brother, Mischa, in the third round and another over the No. 7 seed Kei Nishikori in the quarters. Standing in his way of a repeat victory is the 19-year-old from Athens, Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The No. 10 seed has enjoyed an outstanding week, with an impressive and surprisingly comfortable straight set win over David Goffin in the quarters. Tsitsipas registers at career-high ranking of 32nd in the world. He started the year ranked No. 91 in the world, and has risen consistently ever since. He hasn’t won any tour-level titles yet, but he had a solid run to the finals of Barcelona–where he was predictably shellacked by Rafael Nadal.
Both men are playing well this week. The German is by far the more experienced of the two and has proven his mettle with eight titles to his name. He will have the edge in Saturday’s match. Still, Tsitsipas is in excellent form and it wouldn’t be completely surprising if the greek youngster were to pull off a big upset.
Cheryl pick: Zverev in 3
Ricky pick: Zverev in 2
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I’m gonna go Tsitsipas in 3. and lol ‘predication’
imagine if tstitsipas won a grand slam before zverev :O
I’ll admit I’d like to see Tsitsipas win this one but Sascha is too strong and won’t be at all nervous. Sascha in 2 but I’d like to see 3 sets! Tsitsipas has already quite exceeded my hope for him at this tournament.
Sascha has the early break.
Tsitsipas looks clueless returning Sasha’s big serves; he’s not going to win this one. It’s their first meeting so Tsitsipas is not used to Sasha’s style and Sasha is too experienced compared to Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas vs Sasha is like the younger version of Fed vs Djoko, imo, except that there’s not much of an age difference between Sasha and Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas getting angry with himself after losing serve for the second time, hitting himself on the head!
Sasha is only 21 and he’s the oldest among the four SFinalists. I see the young generation is already making some noises, good showing by them so far this year.
Heard the commies say Tsitsipas turns 20 very soon – in a couple of weeks?
Yep, Tsitsipas looked cool and confident vs Goffin yesterday. A bit surprised he came out so nervous. But yeah Sascha is the boss of this match so far. Solid, confident…but maybe he’ll have his guard down enough this second set and Tstsi will start to relax, play well, and we have a match. Just a hope. Maybe.
It’s better tennis 2nd set. hahahaha great diving winner from Stef but OUCH! that had to hurt. He won the point but will lose his serve…
Come on Stef hold serve! first serve letting him down. 9th deuce. And Sascha breaks him…
At least the second set is a bit more competitive but Sasha the more steady of the two so he wins in the end. Sasha looks good in BO3 but don’t understand why he just couldn’t bring it at the BO5 matches.
Tsitsipas needs a good hair cut, his hair is too long and a bit messy and his bandanna couldn’t hold them in place. He needs to learn to have the killer instinct and not procrastinate, the numerous deuces at the end of the second set could be prevented imo, had he concentrated and served two good serves in a row to get the job done, since he could produce good serves to get out of troubles so often.
Sascha beat Rublev both times they met and it wasn’t even close. So, I’m a little bit hoping for De Minaur to win the other semi. Davis Cup in Australia, de Minaur made Sascha go 5 sets for the win.
Yeah… Sascha has yet to be convincing in a GS. I know he made the QF at FO but he wasn’t looking sharp in his matches, iirc, and had nothing left to fight Thiem. And what a disappointment losing to Gulbis at Wimbledon, imo. Also losing to Chung at AO. I don’t know why he can’t bring the killer instinct and turn those long matches into straight set wins. It was predictable that his guard would waver (lose concentration) in the second set today but Stefanos couldn’t bring the killer instinct he showed vs Goffin yesterday. He was far too nervous vs Sascha – Stefanos knew it too (hitting his head like he did on the changeover that was pure frustration) & Throwing his bandanna down lol
Just some random tidbit about the rankings here. Del O will probably be world number 2 if he wins Montreal.
Del Po* lol autocorrect. Also I haven’t been on much this week or talked much about the matches but I gotta say it’s really cool to see Tsitsipas becoming so good so fast. Zverev a little too tough in the semis and will surely win the finals. I’m hoping we get a De Minaur vs Zverev final. Still not a huge fan of Rublev.
Two exciting young players…I like them both…but Zv in 3.
Tsi si pas is really showing his mettle as an all court player.
He reminds me of a young Borg with his untidy hairstyle.
Great to see another SHBHer with an exciting game .
Oviously. I was comparing their looks , not their backhands
de Minaur back from the brink!
De Minaur gotta take this tomorrow!