Tennis – French Open – Roland Garros, Paris, France – June 1, 2019. Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in action during his third round match against Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
June 1, 2019
PARIS (Reuters) – Greek sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas dug deep to book his place in the French Open fourth round on Saturday, completing a 7-5 6-3 6-7(5) 7-6(6) victory against Serbian Filip Krajinovic after play was suspended on Friday night.
The match resumed at 5-5 in the third set and Tsitsipas looked wobbly in losing the tiebreak before finally winning in four sets thanks to his opponent’s nerves on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
A runner-up in Madrid and semi-finalist in Rome in the run-up to the claycourt Grand Slam, Tsitsipas had breezed through the first two sets and appeared on the brink of a no-nonsense win when play resumed in searing heat on Saturday.
But Krajinovic threw everything he had at Tsitsipas, which unsettled the 20-year-old.
Two straight double faults handed a break to Krajinovic in the fourth set, but the Serbian let his guard down and allowed Tsitsipas to get another crack at a tiebreak.
The Greek saved a set point as Krajinovic lost his composure, hitting long on the first match point.
Tsitsipas next faces either 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka or Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Chopra)
