Andrey Rublev defeats Dominic Thiem in Melbourne Opener
Rublev awaits either Emil Ruusuvuori or Australian qualfiier Max Purcell in the second round.
Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas inched past Dominic Thiem of Austria on Sunday to bag the 2019 ATP Tour title – biggest trophy of his career.
The sixth-seeded Tsitsipus defeated fifth seed Thiem in a closely-contested 6-7(6), 6-2, 7-6(4) fight which went over two hours and 35 minutes at The O2 Arena in London.
It is to note that Tsitsipus, who is 21 years and three months old, is the youngest ATP Finals champion since former world number 1 Lleyton Hewitt (20) in 2001 in Sydney.
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“I have no clue how I played so well in the second set,” Tsitsipas was quoted as saying by the official website of ATP Tour.
Tsitsipas narrowly lost the first set to Thiem, however, the Greek bounced back in the second and the third to win the highest honour at the tournament.
“I have no idea. I think my mind was at ease and I wasn’t really thinking of much, which led to such a great performance in the second set, breaking him twice.
“I didn’t give him much options to play with in the second set. It was pretty much an excellent set for me,” said the 26-year-old.
In the semifinals, Tsitsipas had knocked out six-time champion Roger Federer and stunned the London crowd before clinching the title on Sunday.
This is the fourth straight year that a first-time season finale titlist has been crowned, following in the footsteps of Andy Murray (2016), Grigor Dimitrov (2017) and Alexander Zverev (2018).
Moreover, Sunday’s final was also the third summit clash since 2002 which was played without Federer, Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal.
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