Stefanos Tsitsipas struggled his way through to four sets before going down to Andrey Rublev in the first round at the 2019 US Open on Tuesday. And joining Rublev in the second round was Kiki Bertens, Marin Cilic and Bianca Andreescu.
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What made it an interesting match was the amount of drama surrounding it. While Tsitsipas was a favourite going into the encounter, Rublev has had an exciting run in recent times including a win over Roger Federer at the Cincinnati Masters in the lead-up to this tournament.
And all of that confidence came handy for Rublev who won 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(7), 7-5 in nearly four hours of tennis, with the match almost threatening to go into the fifth. Rublev was left to serve for the match at 5-4 but a bout of nerves thwarted that effort and he was broken.
However, a physically struggling Tsitsipas then dropped his serve yet again allowing Rublev to capitalise and serve out the match. The Greek suffered from cramps in that fourth set, having to limp at various times during the match to get to his service line.
At the end of the match, Rublev admitted the conditions were tough and credited his opponent for an “amazing match”. He said he had himself suffered cramps at different times during the match but added:
“When you win matches like this, it gives you confidence. This match is special, because you know how great he is.”
This was Tsitsipas’ third successive defeat in the first round of a competition since making the semi-final at the Washington Open. Rublev will face Giles Simon who defeated Bjorn Fratengelo 5-7, 7-5, 7-5, 7-5 to make the second round.
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In some of the women’s singles matches in action today, seventh seeded Dutchwoman Bertens was a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Spanish lucky-loser Paula Badosa, while 22nd seeded Marin Cilic got his campaign off to a good start with a straight-set win over Martin Klizan.
Cilic, who has had form issues entering this final major would be relieved to have had it easy and will now face the winner of the Filip Krajinovic and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in the second round.
Andreescu, the 15th seed from Canada and the title-winner at the Canadian Open, also wasted no time in getting past American wildcard Katie Volynets 6-2, 6-4. She will face lucky loser Kirsten Flipkens in the second round who was a winner against Wang Xiy, another lucky-loser from the qualifiers.
Jordan Thompson was a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 winner over Joao Sousa while Fernando Verdasco needed four sets to overcome Tobias Kamke and move to round two.
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