Stefanos Tsitsipas put in a performance worthy of his top seed status on Friday at the Citi Open in Washington, winning eight consecutive games to reach the semi-finals over No. 10 seed Benoit Paire of France 7-5, 6-0.
His win set up a mouthwatering match with Nick Kyrgios after teaming up with him this week in doubles. The Aussie produced a red-hot performance to defeat Slovakian lucky loser Norbert Gombos 6-3, 6-3.
After his victory on Friday, the Greek tennis star climbed one spot in the ATP rankings (5).
It was a particularly successful week for Greek tennis, as Maria Sakkari also advanced to the San Jose semi-finals after making an astonishing comeback against 7th ranked Elina Svotilina.
Top-seeded Svitolina blitzed to a 6-1, 5-2 lead, dominating all aspects of the match. But when it was time to close out the match, Svitolina succumbed to nerves, while Sakkari finally found the range on her penetrating forehand. After two hours and 32 minutes, the ‘Spartan’ emerged the victor, 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3, after the Greek saved four match points.
“I don’t know how I came back. I don’t know where I found this power. Probably I have it deep inside. I’m a Spartan, so we don’t forget that,” Sakkari said on-court afterwards. “I’m super happy. I was playing very bad tennis. I was not moving, not reacting at all. I really don’t know how I managed to wake up.”
Sakkari will face Saisai Zheng in the semi-finals.
