Stefanos Tsitsipas and
Vasek Pospisil had impressive performances in their Wednesday victories to advance to the 2nd round of Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
Stefanos Tsitsipas returned to the courts today and while he lost the opening set he returned to track and won in just under two hours 6-7(3) 6-3 6-4. The start was not very good despite Tsitsipas having a break point in the opening game. Struff consolidated and served well fending off the attacks of the Greek. He had set points late in the set but Tsitsipas forced the tiebreak. In it the Greek didn't play very well and lost it. After that, he finally started playing his own game dictating the tempo and attacking at will. He won the 2nd set 6-3 in just 29 minutes.
The final set was even more impressive from the Greek. He was unstoppable on his own serve and he patiently waited for chances on Struff's serve. When he got the chances he clinically converted them and went on to win the match. A good early test for Tsitsipas and a solid turnaround after a close 1st set loss.
The programme featured an all-Canadian matchup between
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Vasek Pospisil. It was Vasek that started off better breaking Auger to take a 4-2 lead. Felix came back to make it 4-4 before the match continued. Both of them served rather well and Auger was playing very aggressive tennis. Late in the set Auger started making more mistakes and Vasek used that to win the set 7-5. It was a disappointing result for Auger but Vasek proved better in crucial points and rallies.
The 2nd set was a very good tennis display from both players as both served well and held their serve without any particular issue. Games came and went and we arrived at 5-5. Pospisil won his game with several smashing serves along with two aces. Then it was Felix's time to do the same and his performance was less impressive. He lost two points on two terrible mistakes while Pospisil won one point with a strong backhand winner. It gave him three consecutive set points and he used them to win the match 7-5 7-5 in just under two hours.