By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday October 22, 2019
Stefanos Tsitsipas booked his spot in round two at the Swiss Indoors in basel by defeating Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Photo Source: Shanghai Masters
Third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas pushed into round two at the Swiss Indoors Basel but No.2-seeded Alexander Zverev was not so lucky.
Tsitsipas tackled the challenge of tricky southpaw Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4 7-6(6) to set up a second-round encounter with either Ricardas Berankis or Pablo Andujar. The Greek was close to flawless in the opening set and dropped just two points on serve as he capitalized on a break in the sixth game and was never tested by the 31-year-old Spaniard.
Tsitsipas gained the edge in the second set when he broke for 3-2 but Ramos-Vinolas broke right back as he hit a purple patch and rallied from 0-30 to break in the next game.
The pair held serve the rest of the way and battled through a tight tiebreaker until Tsitsipas took the upper hand and converted his third set match point to seal his 46th victory of the 2019 season.
There was plenty of resistance from the elder's side of the court on Tuesday night in Basel. Ramos-Vinolas saved a match point with Tsitsipas serving at 6-4 when he blistered a forehand winner. He would save another on the next point with a big serve.
After blowing off some steam at the change of ends the Greek earned another match point at 7-6 when his perfect lob landed square on the baseline and a Ramos-Vinolas error followed.
Tsitsipas sealed the deal with a service winner down the T to close affairs in one hour and 33 minutes. The Greek has now won 28 of 39 tiebreakers in 2019, and those 28 tiebreak set wins are second only to John Isner in 2019 on the ATP Tour.
Zverev’s tumultuous 2019 campaign continued as the German was bundled out of Basel by Taylor Fritz, 7-6(7) 6-4. 21-year-old Fritz earned his 29th win of the season by rallying from 4-0 down to take a tense first-set tiebreaker then outplaying the 22-year-old World No. 6 in the second set.
Zverev, who had a set point in that first-set breaker, was broken in the third game of the second set and never recovered. He drops to 41-22 on the season and still has work to do if he is to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals at London. Zverev is currently in seventh in the Race to London standings but holds a lead of less than 400 points over No.9 Roberto Bautista Agut.
In other action at Basel, Radu Albot set a second-round encounter with nine-time champion by defeating Dusan Lajovic, 2-6 6-3 6-4. Fabio Fognini defeated Alexei Popyrin to keep his slim London hopes alive, 6-2 6-4, while Reilly Opelka defeated Cristian Garin 7-6(5) 7-6(10).
Richard Gasquet (d. Londero 6-1 7-6(4)) also advanced.
On Wednesday in Basel, Stan Wawrinka (v. Cuevas) and Roger Federer (v. Albot) will play back-to-back. If both advance they could potentially meet for the 27th time in the quarterfinals at Basel. Federer holds the 23-3 lifetime edge, including victories over Wawrinka at Indian Wells and Roland Garros this season.