Sam Bunce
The Greek won his first ATP 500 trophy as he overcame Felix Auger-Aliassime at the Dubai Open. Tsitsipas makes his way back into the top 10 of the singles rankings as a result of his straight sets win over his Canadian opponent.
After losing back-to-back Dubai Open finals in 2019 and 2020 to tennis veterans Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic respectively, another final here granted a shot at redemption, especially with his early exit from the Australian Open to 42nd seeded Alex Michelsen, which derailed any hope of a strong grand slam result.
His performance in the final against Auger-Aliassime was convincing, even though he had to endure almost 11 minutes to secure a break point in the seventh game of the first set. He then held his serve after another game which went beyond ten minutes, and he minimised unforced errors.
Tsitsipas had won six of the last nine encounters between the two players on the ATP tour since 2019. He won four games in a row to conclude and win the first set, which made the path much easier to claiming another victory over his 24-year-old opponent, and set the standard for what had to come.
The second set saw both players hold their serves well early on, but the seventh game saw Auger-Aliassime strike a comeback from 40-0 down to make it 40-40 to threaten a break.
However, after a break point not capitalised on, the Canadian found himself 4-3 down and he would come to rue his errors, with Tsitispas’ clinical strides to the finish line in the last two games finally sealing his long awaited triumph at an ATP 500 final.
Novak Djokovic jokingly tweeted that the Greek was never going to lose 12 ATP 500 finals in a row, and it was certainly a statement for Tsitsipas to win in straight sets, as he did against Tallin Griekspoor in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Felix Auger-Aliassime will not be too displeased with his recent form. The now 18th ranked player was knocked out in the semi-finals in Doha, and came straight into Dubai without much rest and came runner-up with all of his matches being three sets long, apart from in the final.
The bulk of his seven career tournament victories have come on indoor hard court and with plenty of time left to transfer his ability across the surfaces and to outdoor hard court, the recent weeks in the Middle East for the Canadian have been up there with his best for a few years.
The next event in the tennis calendar is the biggest outside of the four grand slams. Indian Wells in California is the best attended event excluding the four majors and lives up to the billing each year. The main round in the men’s and women’s will commence on Wednesday 5th March.
Carlos Alcaraz has won twice in a row on the American hard court. Novak Djokovic, with Andy Murray returning by his side, will look to challenge the Spaniard, with world number one Jannik Sinner absent due to his three month suspension from the sport.
Teenage rising stars Joao Fonseca and Learner Tien have both received wild cards for this tournament.
They will likely disrupt many of the experienced singles players on tour once again, with the Brazilian Fonseca winning his maiden ATP title at the Argentina Open, and Tien stunning top seed Alexander Zverev in Mexico.
Also the number one seed at the recent ATP 500 event he attended, Daniil Medvedev, bowed out to a much lower ranked opponent in Tallon Griekspoor in Dubai and he will look to make amends for the defeat.
The women’s scene seems to be shaping up nicely for a competitive showing in the US as well.
Iga Swiatek is the reigning champion in the women’s singles. Aryna Sabalenka and particularly Australian Open winner Madison Keys, who will be competing on home turf, could present a danger to Swiatek’s title defence and the Poles’ immaculate record at this event.
Sam Bunce
Featured image courtesy of @fancycrave via Unsplash. Image use license found here (Unsplash). No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of @stefanostsitsipas98 via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 2 courtesy of @felixaliassime via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 3 courtesy of @iga.swiatek via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
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