ATP Estoril: Stefanos Tsitsipas beats Pablo Cuevas for third ATP title
The top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas has claimed the third ATP title from six finals, ousting a lucky loser Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 7-6 in an hour and 43 minutes for his first success on clay. Stefanos lost a tight semi-final to Joao Sousa here 12 months ago and he came back stronger after a great run he has enjoyed on the Tour, proving himself as the player to beat and becoming the fourth player in 2019 with multiple ATP titles after Roger Federer, Dominic Thiem and Christian Garin who achieved that in Munich some 15 minutes before Stefanos! Also, this was a perfect week for the Greek tennis, with Maria Sakkari claiming the first WTA title yesterday in Rabat, raising the Greece flag high over the tennis world.
Two years ago in Antwerp, a teenager lost only five games against Cuevas and had to work harder today, especially in the second set when Pablo had a set point at 5-4. Landing 71% of the first serve in, Tsitsipas faced only two break points and got broken just once, putting the pressure on the Uruguayan who dealt with it nicely considering how many matches he had to play this week, suffering two breaks from four opportunities offered to the youngster and missing that chance to send the encounter into a decider. The favorite settled into an excellent rhythm right from the start, keeping his service games safe and moving 3-1 up after a forehand mistake from Cuevas.
Serving for the opener at 5-3, Stefanos held at love to wrap up the first part of the match in 37 minutes, hoping for more of the same in the rest of the encounter. Pablo suffered a break at 15 at the beginning of the second set when he netted a backhand, trailing 4-2 before shifting into a higher gear to make the battle more exciting. Stefanos did everything right so far but started to make more errors, allowing Cuevas to win 12 out of 13 points and move 5-4 in front, creating a set point in the next game on the return.
Tsitsipas saved it with a service winner and survived three deuces in game 12 to set up a tie break that he won 7-4 with a forehand winner for the ATP title number three. Stefanos is the fifth player born in 1995 or later with at least three ATP crowns, joining Alexander Zverev, Nick Kyrgios, Daniil Medvedev and Karen Khachanov who achieved that before him.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2VRLZtq
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