Stefanos Tsitsipas wins 2022 Mallorca Championships

Stefanos Tsitsipas proved better than Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets to lift his maiden grass trophy in Mallorca 6-3 3-6 7-6(2).

Last year it was Daniil Medvedev who lifted his maiden grass trophy at this event but this around it was Stefanos Tsitsipas who proved better in two very competitive sets. This score would indicate that Tsitsipas cruised in this one but it was a lot more competitive than the score indicated.

Early one it was easy for Tsitsipas, too easy. The Greek player jumped out to a 4-0 lead as he dominated play with his forehand. Bautista was unable to do anything but eventually, he started to find solutions and Tsitsipas started to miss. The Spanish player was able to battle back to 3-4 but Stefanos still had a break in hand.

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He would hold it comfortably to snatch the opening set up with 6-4. The key difference was the serve which gave Tsitsipas more free points and chances on the 2nd where he won 7 of 11 points. The 2nd set opened with an early break by Tsitsipas and it seemed like he would cruise. Well, he did not as Bautista was able to battle back and make it 4-3 for him. He then added two more for the 6-3 2nd set victory.

Bautista was down 1-3 but won 5 games in a row to send the match into a 3rd one. The final set was an interesting one as it opened well for both. The key moment came at 2-1 for Tsitsipas and 40-0 for Bautista on his serve. The Spaniard committed a couple of errors to give Tsitsipas a break point and he converted it with a lucky bounce on the net. He would lose that break but eventually win 7-2 in the tiebreak.

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