By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday May 26, 2019
Stefanos Tsitsipas entered today’s match with Maximilian Marter with two less wins than the German in Paris. But boy did the Greek ever play the part of the experienced veteran over the course of his one hour and 48 minute 6-2 6-2 7-6(4) victory.
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Tsitsipas was quick to move in and impose himself against Marterer, a player that reached the round of 16 in his first Roland Garros appearance last season. And Tsitsipas, making his eighth careere appearance at a major, was a player in full flight and under complete control during the contest, as his +13 winners to unforced error ratio indicates.
The No.6 seed won the majority of the short points, the medium points and the long ones. He was solid at the net, taking 17 of 22 points up there, and he was dominant from the service stripe, hitting on 41 of 46 first-serve points to keep Marterer at bay throughout the course of the match.
And Marterer didn’t play poorly. This was a quality win for Tsitsipas, and a clear sign that he is a player that is more than capable of making a run into the second week here in Paris.
Even the Greek couldn’t help but be impressed with his form.
“I was playing really well the first two sets of the match. Better than I thought I would,” he said.
To Marterer’s credit, the German played exceptionally in set three and did not surrender a break of serve. But when push came to shove in the third set tiebreaker he faltered and Tsitsipas rose above.
“Third set was tricky,” Tsitsipas later reflected. “I felt like he started pressing more, started going for his shots more, faster, stronger. It went his way, I was couple times Love-30 on his serve. I can say he played pretty well on these moments. Yeah, stayed mentally strong and closed the tiebreak at the end.
The 20-year-old clinches his 30th victory of the season and will face either Prajnesh Gunneswaran or Hugo Dellien in the second round. If he plays anywhere near the way he did on Sunday he should be a lock to reach the third round at Roland Garros for the first time in his career.
And that could very well just be the beginning of the milestones that this young sensation cracks during the Paris fortnight.
But rather than get caught looking to far ahead, Tsitsipas has proven to be wise beyond his years; he knows that no matter how much he has already proven in 2019, each match presents its own problems.
“Every opponent can cause damage,” he said. “To me, every win is the best win of my career.”