Stefanos Tsitsipas has clinched his 10th ATP title at the
Los Cabos Open in Mexico, with an impressive victory over
Alex de Minaur.
World No. 5 Tsitsipas improved upon his already strong results from this season with his first win on hard courts in three years. The Greek player only dropped one set en route to the trophy at the ATP 250 event.
This comes after he reached the Australian Open final earlier this year, although he ultimately missed out on what would have been his first Grand Slam trophy after being defeated by Novak Djokovic.
Tsitsipas felt final was 'a great match'
The tournament's top-seeded player extended his absolute lead against De Minaur in terms of matches won, as he now leads the head-to-head 10-0. During the final, Tsitsipas was able to convert four out of nine break points and held three points to achieve a double-break in the second set.
Ultimately, he won 6-3, 6-4 against the Australian.
Speaking after the match, Tsitsipas praised his opponent and expressed his happiness at the fact that he felt the match was an entertaining one for the crowd.
"I feel like both of us wanted to go out on the court today and show a great final, I feel like it was a great match. Alex showed great tennis, I tried to keep up with the level as much as I could.
I’m really happy we were able to deliver a great final today. I think that is the thing that stands out the most. It was a great match and the crowd, as always, was fully present and engaged," the 24-year-old said.
Tsitsipas to move up the rankings
Tsitsipas dropped only one set on the way to his 39th win of the 2023 season. This came in his quarter-final match against Nicolas Jarry. Overall, he lost no more than seven games across the rest of his matches against John Isner, Borna Coric, and de Minaur.
"I will take the positives out of this week, I had a few good matches here and I think it’s a good start to the [American hard-court] swing. We’ve experienced a lot of good tennis this week from a lot of good players. The competition was high, and I’m happy to walk away with the trophy," he said during his post-match press conference.
This victory means that Tsitsipas will move up to world No. 4 in the ATP singles rankings when they are updated on Monday, August 7, moving above Norway's Casper Ruud.