“Unbelievable Tennis”: Stefanos Tsitsipas Feels ’Blessed to Win’ Against Felix Auger-Aliassime at Mexican Open 2021

The top seed at the ATP Acapulco Open 2021, Stefanos Tsitsipas, battled Felix-Auger Aliassime for three sets. In the end, the Greek player came through and made it through to the semifinal in Mexico.

Coming into this match, both the players had a straight-sets win to their name. Moreover, they both defeated Americans in their previous match; the Greek star defeated John Isner, while the Canadian won against Sebastian Korda.

Now, the challenge at hand for the top seed was the 20-year-old and seventh seed Felix Auger-Aliassime. Also, the Canadian came into the match with high hopes to upset World No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas.

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Stefanos Tsitsipas v Felix Auger-Aliassime: Set 1

The match began in favor of the Canadian as Tsitsipas could not manage to hold his opening serve. After that, the duo raised the bar of the match, and they both posed arduous questions to their opponent.

They both also found the balance to keep their scoreboard ticking until at 2-3, where Felix returned the favor at 40-0. This leveled their match at 3-3.

Following that, the Greek and the Canadian held a couple of their serves and took the opening set to seven games. They both played strategically to gain easy points without bargaining their service hold.

Although the match was fair until now, a sudden storm from Tsitsipas changed it all. Leading at 6-5, the Greek God broke Felix at 40-0 again to win the opening set 7-5.

Tsitsipas v Felix: The Canadian levels the match at 1-1

Once again, the 22-year-old made full use of his big serve and held his service at 40-0. However, Felix kept his hold, and he also cracked open his opponents’ next service game.

While Tsitsipas kept his calm, the Canadian rising star was more focused on maintaining his hold. The Greek earned a breakpoint in the following game to recover his loss but failed to convert it.

This cost him the lead of his opening set. Felix Auger-Aliassime continued to dominate Tsitsipas with precise drop shots and won the second set without stopping anywhere. The score was 7-5, 4-6.

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Tsitsipas v Felix: The decider set

Both of them knew the stakes very well and started the final set with this in mind. As a result, they became more cautious about losing points than gaining them and managed to hold their service game.

At 3-3 in the decider set, the duo had one foot each in the ATP Mexican Open semifinal. However, they needed to push out the other to meet either Grigor Dimitrov or Lorenzo Musetti in the next round.

The big breakthrough came to the Greek player who yet again broke Felix at 40-0. This allowed him to serve for the match and cement his place in the Last Four. In the end, the Canadian fought hard to save the match point, but it went in vain. Tsitsipas will play the semifinals in Mexico after beating Felix 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

You can tell from his celebration how important the win was for him, especially since Tsitsipas is a debutant at Acapulco, Mexico.

Post the match, Tsitsipas said, “What a night. We both played unbelievable tennis. The qualify was very high. I had a bit of luck in the 3rd set, but I was very persistent. Blessed to win this one in front of the crowd.”

Moreover, he added that nobody on the Tour knows his game better than Felix. He said, “He knows my game better than any other player in the world. We play since he were 12 years old.”

Moving forward, the top seed will look forward to winning his first ATP title in 2021. Do you think the Greek can be the new winner of Acapulco?

Also Read: “Good Thing”: Felix Auger-Aliassime Draws Positivity From Losing Seven Tour Finals