French Open 2023: Stefanos Tsitsipas breezes past Diego Schwartzman to make fourth round in style
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Updated 02/06/2023 at 20:09 GMT
It was a comfortable passage to the fourth round of the 2023 French Open for Stefanos Tsitsipas, who knocked out Argentina's Diego Schwartzman in straight sets, 6-2 6-2 6-3. Tsitsipas, the fifth seed, rarely looked troubled against his 30-year-old opponent, and cruised through to face surprise package world No. 118 Sebastian Ofner of Austria in the next round.
Schwartzman's trickery gets him a point against Tsitsipas
Stefanos Tsitsipas breezed past Diego Schwartzman in straight sets 6-2 6-2 6-3 to make the fourth round of the French Open in style.
The Greek was rarely pushed to his limit by the Argentinean, with the comfortable scoreline indicating the ease with which Tsitsipas controlled proceedings on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
However, speaking after the match, Tsitsipas thought the game was far from straightforward.
"Wasn’t easy at all", he said.
"I know it was three sets. So far my most difficult match in terms of concentration and having to stay in there on every single point."
"Diego did a great job fighting on every single point and not giving me any free points."
"I knew that I was dealing with that today and that was the biggest asset of his game which I had to take away."
Patience, that’s what I learnt today."
Tsitsipas broke early to race into a 3-0 lead in the opener, breaking twice more as he put the pressure on his beleaguered opponent.
Schwartzman did break back at the set beckoned for the fifth seed, but Tsitsipas grabbed the next game and with it the set, 6-2.
The unseeded Argentinean kept things level at 2-2 in the second set, but lost the next four games as Tsitsipas looked to be romping to victory.
He was slowed somewhat in the third, as Schwartzman put up a creditable fight, but Tsitsipas provided a moment of brilliance unleashing a stunning backhand around the post lower than the height of the net.
Questioned about it after the match, Tsitsipas said: "We never practice that. It was a one off!"
"It was the very last millisecond that I decided that ‘you know what, forget the net, we don’t need it on that particular occasion’."
"I saw that there was a chance, that there was a gap there that I could utilise to hit that shot and it just went through."
The gulf in quality ultimately told as the Greek served out the third set 6-3, and with it the match.
Tsitsipas next faces an unexpected test in the form of Austria's world No. 118, Sebastian Ofner, who beat Fabio Fognini in five sets.
Going into that match, he feels he has much room for improvement.
"It was a good match. I felt like there were a few unforced errors that I didn’t see coming at all. Especially towards the last few games.
"I haven’t dealt with situations like this before, it was a little bit odd. But I’m happy. I’m happy because I put out a great fight and the crowd was by myself, which always helps", he said.
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