LONDON, (The Southern African Times) – Stefanos Tsitsipas fought his way past Alexander Zverev to make his first grand slam final on Friday, winning 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 to get his name in the history books. He becomes the first Greek to reach a major tournament final in tennis history.
The fifth seed benefitted from a nervy start by his opponent, who had two double faults and hit a forehand wide to give him a 2-0 lead early in the first set. The early break would prove to be essential as he would go on to take the set 6-3 despite the German opponent getting some sort of rhythm.
The momentum would shift Zverev’s way in the second as he cruised to a quick 3-0 lead, thanks to an unforced error by Stef on break point. Tsitsipas seemed to hit the reset button as he came back from 3-0 down to win 6 games in a row and take control of the match by winning the second set.
The sixth seed got off to another great start in the third set, breaking in the third game to take a 2-1 lead accompanied by great hitting from the baseline, outhitting his opponent.
The was drama at 15-15 in the ninth game when a lines official called a ball out, which the umpire would check and call in, but Zverev had missed the forehand to that ball and the point would go Stefanos’ way. That led to an argument from Sascha to the supervisor and the umpire, who still wouldn’t give him a retake of the point. He would go on to serve out the set and send it into a decider.
The highlight of the fourth set would be a break by Zverev, who consolidated the break by landing outrageous first serves throughout the set backed with unforced errors by his opponent and missed returns of serves to send us into a deciding set.
The decider got off to a remarkable start for fans watching around the world, with Alex leading 0-40 on return and an impressive 3 break points saved by a relentless Tsitsipas.
The Greek played superbly to take a 3-1 lead as, getting closer to achieving his dream of playing in a French Open Final. At 5-2 and 15-40 up you would think the match was done and dusted, however the German buried two huge serves to save the match points, he would save another and force Tsitsipas to serve out for a place in the finale.
The 22 year old Greek played a near flawless game topped with an ace to wrap up the match after 3 hours and 37 minutes of just pure tennis by two young men. He will look to be the first player ever from Greece to get their hands on a grand slam title.
(Report Written and Compiled by Takudzwa Alufeyo)
