The results have started to turn a little for Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The former World No. 3 has dropped all the way back to No. 49 in the ATP Tour rankings, but he did win a title in Gstaad, Switzerland, last month and took Alex de Minaur to three sets soon after.
On Friday, the 2022 runner-up at the Cincinnati Open got his 2026 stay at the event started with a 7-6 (4), 7-5 victory over France’s Valentin Royer in Mason, Ohio.
It was not a work of art for Tsitsipas, as he only got 53% of his first serves in and lost his serve while trying to wrap up the match at 5-4 in the second. But he finally prevailed in two hours in his fourth match point of the 12th game and his sixth of the match.
“It was nerve-wracking at the end with those match points I was not able to capture,” Tsitsipas said. “It would have been easy to get tight.
“I had to remind myself to stay loose and play aggressive. If I was going to miss, at least I knew I had done the right thing.”
Bulgarian wild-card entry Grigor Dmitrov was not as fortunate in his opening-round match. Argentina’s Sebastian Baez knocked out the 2017 champion 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
It was heartbreaking for the popular Dmitrov, who took a 4-1 lead in the deciding set, but saw his opponent rattle off the final five games of the match.
Two of the first three Americans in action under the sunny Cincinnati skies prevailed. Alex Michelsen bested Dutchman Jesper de Jong 6-4, 6-4 and Michael Zheng outlasted Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (1).
But Cincinnati native J.J. Wolf, who is returning from a torn labrum, dropped a narrow 7-5, 7-6 (0) decision to Australia’s James Duckworth.
Recent tour winner Quentin Halys, from France, defeated Czech Vit Kopriva 7-6 (5), 6-4; Italy’s Matteo Berrettini edged France’s Titouan Droguet 3-6, 6-1, 6-4; Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz routed Japanese lucky loser Sho Shimabukuro 6-2, 6-4; and 35-year-old Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta upset Czech Tomas Machac 6-3, 6-2.
Others who advanced Friday include Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, Germans Daniel Altmaier and Yannick Hanfmann, Aussies Christopher O’Connell and Adam Walton, Argentines Juan Manuel Cerundolo and Marco Trungelliti, the Netherlands’ Botic van de Zandschulp, Portugal’s Nuno Borges, Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego and Spain’s Daniel Merida.
In evening action, Portuguese qualifier Jaime Faria knocked out Jenson Brooksby 6-2, 6-2, and Aleksandar Kovacevic edged Russia’s Karen Khachanov 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (2).
–Field Level Media
