Stefanos Tsitsipas described his thriller match against Grigor Dimitrov as “a lot of drama” as he was glad that he was able to bring a key point to Greece at the United Cup. After Despina Papamichail defeated Isabella Shinikova 3-6 6-4 6-1 to give Greece an early 1-0 lead over Bulgaria, Tsitsipas edged out Dimitrov 4-6 6-2 7-6 (4) in two hours and 12 minutes of play to push Greece’s lead to 2-0.
“[There was] a lot of drama. Both of us I think were serving extremely well during the course of the entire match. There weren’t a lot of moments that I felt like I could do something except the second set, which went really smoothly from my side,” Tsitsipas said, per the United Cup website.
Tsitsipas: Dimitrov gave me the key unforced error
The first break of the match was seen in the 10th game, when Dimitrov broke Tsitsipas while the Greek was serving to stay in the first set. After losing the first set on a devastating way, Tsitsipas bounced back in the second set with two breaks as he was able to send the match into a decider.
At the start of the third set, Tsitsipas missed out on two break points in the first game while Dimitrov didn’t convert a break point in the second game. In the eighth game, Dimitrov missed out on two break points which could have given him a 5-3 lead as Tsitsipas was able to force a tie-break.
In the very first game of the tie-break, Tsitsipas got a mini-break following a Dimitrov unforced error. Tsitsipas then opened a 3-0 tie-break lead, before converting his first match point to complete a big comeback. “Grigor gave an unforced error from the first point of the tiebreaker.
I knew that this was my moment to really go for it. I tried to suppress all emotions. I tried to stay within the moment, let any negative thoughts out of my head, and I continued and cruised from that point onwards,” Tsitsipas said.
