By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, August 20, 2021
Stefanos Tsitsipas surged past Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 to reach his ninth semifinal of the season at the Western & Southern Open.
Photo credit: Getty
Navigating a match of ebbs and flows, Stefanos Tsitsipas rode a wave of winners into the Cincinnati semifinals.
Tsitsipas shook off the disappointment of failing to convert a couple of match points in the second set, surging past Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 to reach his ninth semifinal of the season at the Western & Southern Open.
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The second-seeded Tsitsipas raised his ATP-best record to 48-13 reaching his third Masters semifinal of the season. The Monte-Carlo champion will play Alexander Zverev for a spot in Sunday's final.
The third-seeded Zverev overpowered Casper Ruud 6-1, 6-3 for his ninth straight win, completing a quarterfinal Friday that saw all top four seeds reach the final four.
Olympic gold-medal champion Zverev won 23 of 26 first-serve points in a 59-minute sweep.
The third-ranked Greek has won six of eight meetings with Zverev; the fifth-ranked Zverev beat Tsitsipas 6-4, 7-6(3) in the Acapulco final earlier this year.
A crackling first serve and electric forehand helped Tsitsipas top Auger-Aliassime for the fifth time in a row to take a 5-2 lead in their head-to-head series. Tsitsipas served with more authority, backed his second serve with more vigor and used his forehand wisely converting four of eight break-point chances.
"I thought he served well. He always does," Auger-Aliassime said. "You know, he covered the court well. He was solid. Again, for some reason again, I couldn't find a way to just, you know, put that extra ball in and just, you know, finish the points well.
"Every time was just me missing the forehand and rushing and, you know, yeah, kind of doing the same mistake as I did earlier this year. It's really frustrating. I thought I could really do better. I'm disappointed."
Auger-Aliassime sailed a forehand beyond the baseline as Tsitsipas earned the first break for 3-1. The French Open finalist fired the slider serve out wide, challenging the Canadian’s volatile forehand, backing up the break for 4-1 after 21 minutes of play. Tsitsipas won eight of the last nine points taking his ninth set in the last 10 sets between the pair.
Down 2-3 in the second set, Auger-Aliassime called for the trainer to examine a lower back back issue.
Lifting his level, Auger-Aliassime began landing drives on the line.
Staring down two match points serving at 4-5, Auger-Aliassime thumped an ace to erase the first. On the second match point, the pair engaged in a crackling rally before Auger-Aliassime drove a topspin backhand that landed on the very back edge of the line. Tsitsipas, believing the ball would land long, did not attack the ball as he had been.
Those two brilliant strikes helped the Canadian through a tense hold to level after 10 games.
Attacking behind a crosscourt backhand, Auger-Aliassime drew an errant backhand pass breaking for 6-5.
Resetting after the second set slipped, Tsitsipas showed urgency to start the decider. Spinning a slick, acute-angled forehand pass gave the Greek break points. When Auger-Aliassime missed the mark with a diagonal forehand, Tsitsipas gained the break for 3-1.
A sharper forehand, smoother transition skills and more conviction in the front court are among the reasons Tsitispas has gained the upper hand in this rivalry. The Roland Garros runner-up showed his attacking skills sliding a forehand volley into the short court to confirm the break for 4-1.
The heights Auger-Aliassime achieved late in the second set evaporated as he hit the depths double faulting away the break and a 5-1 lead to Tsitsipas. Though Auger-Aliassime once had the upper hand in this rivalry, Tsitsipas has now flip the script and the Canadian knows he must adjust.
"He creates problem against me. You know, he's improved a lot, and I need to look myself in the mirror and see what I can improve," Auger-Aliassime said. "You know, these type of matches make we want to go back and be better, because I want to be winning these type of matches in the future and, yeah, I will do what I have to do to get there."
Tsitsipas closed in two hours, 11 minutes. The winner of the Tsitsipas-Zverev semifinal will play either top-seeded Daniil Medvedev or fourth-seeded Andrey Rublev in Sunday's final.