Frances Tiafoe upsets Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna

Stefanos Tsitsipas once again run into trouble against Frances Tiafoe with the American proving too much once again besting the Greek 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Tsitsipas came into this match after a brilliant win over Dimitrov in the previous round and his early play was very similar to the level he displayed against the Bulgarian. Brilliant and timely serving, great play from the baseline, and very aggressive. The Greek dropped only two points on his serve in the entire first set not facing a single break point. That was more than enough to win it 6-3.

The 2nd set was another very interesting one as both players were very good early. Neither was able to find any kind of advantage and Tsitsipas was still clinical on his first serve. The Greek actually won all his first serve points in the 2nd set but still lost the set. How? He hit only 42 % of his first serves and gave Tiafoe plenty of chances.

He needed three to finally break open the match but he did and the 2nd set was his with 6-3. Proving that mental toughness is something he has worked on, Tsitsipas came out very focused in the 3rd set. He won his service game comfortably before breaking Tiafoe for the 3-0 lead. The American produced some magic to bring the break back but at 3-2 when he served issues arose again.

He saved multiple break points to make it 3-3 and then proceeded to break Tsitsipas for 4-3. The American was playing very loose tennis while the Greek stiffened up a bit. Tsitsipas was simply too vulnerable on his 2nd serve and Tiafoe attacked every time with great success.