WATCH: Stefanos Tsitsipas Breaks His Racquet During a Rally and Loses Match to Filip Krajinovic in ATP Hamburg Open 2021

One of the most improved players on the ATP tour over the last couple of years, Stefanos Tsitsipas is currently facing a slight dip in form as he faced back-to-back losses at Wimbledon followed by a quarter-final defeat at the on-going Hamburg Open.

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The first-round defeat at SW19 to Frances Tiafoe disappointed the Greek as he admitted before the start of Hamburg that he still didn’t get over that loss.

Stefanos Tsitsipas lost in the Hamburg quarter-finals against Filip Krajinovic

The effect could be seen in his second-round match against Dominik Koepfer where the world number four struggled to maintain an upper-hand throughout the match.

After managing to pull off a victory over Koepfer, more trouble awaited for the Greek star as he was due to face clay-courter Filip Krajinovic in the Hamburg quarter-finals.

Tsitsipas managed to win the first set, 6-3. The French Open runner-up managed to get accurate first-serves in against the Serbian who took some time to get used to the Greek’s racy game.

The second set was where the Greek found it hard to find consistent first-serves in. This allowed Krajinovic a small opening to break the serve of Tsitsipas. After getting an early break, the Greek appeared to be in a spot of bother.

Adding fuel to the fire, the Greek’s racquet broke while he was attempting to hit a backhand return on a bouncy kick-serve from Filip Krajinovic.

The Greek star will have to find a way to rejuvenate ahead of Tokyo Olympics

Things didn’t go well from there for Stefanos Tsitsipas as he looked down and out. The Serbian pounced on this opportunity to win the second set, 6-1.

Even in the deciding set, the next-gen player couldn’t set things right as Krajinovic made very few unforced errors and made it difficult for Tsitsipas to have a break-through.

In the end, it was Tsitsipas’ serve that took a hit today as he lost the quarter-final match against Filip Krajinovic in three sets. The Greek star managed to win just 61% of points on his first serve in comparison to Krajinovic who won 80% of them.

With Stefanos Tsitsipas yet to reflect on his defeat, it will be interesting to see how the youngster will approach this slight dip in form ahead of Tokyo Olympics.

Also read: “Paid off in the End”: Filip Krajinovic Opens Up After Defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in ATP Hamburg Quarter-Finals