By Chris Oddo | Thursday August 9, 2018
Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas stunned four-time Rogers Cup champion Novak Djokovic to reach his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal and earn back-to-back wins against Top 10 players for the first time on Thursday in Toronto, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3.
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"It has big value for me, this win," an elated Tsitsipas later declared. "I feel very proud for me, myself, and my country. I'm putting Greece more deep into the map of tennis. So I'm pretty sure I'm making my family proud, all of those people that are watching, my coach, my father. It was a very emotional win. ... I never felt so many emotions after a victory, and kind of specifies the way I played today."
Tsitsipas, who won 38 of 40 first-serve points on Wednesday against Dominic Thiem, continued his torrid serving against Djokovic, and was not broken as he saved the only two break points he faced.
"I thought Tsitsipas played very well, and he deserved to win without a doubt," Djokovic later reflected. "But I just played not that great, you know, especially from the baseline. I didn't return well. ... All in all, it wasn't that great of a match. But you have those days, and better earlier than later in this series."
The 19-year-old served 11 aces and won 46 of 55 first serve points to go with 25 of 37 second-serve points as he snapped Djokovic’s nine-match winning streak and inched ever closer to making his Top 20 debut.
Djokovic himself had his struggles on serve and faced ten break points against Tsitsipas, saving eight.
After saving two break points at 4-4 in the second set it looked like the Serb might find another gear and surge past Tsitsipas. But the Greek stayed with him and picked up his attack, even after he dropped the second-set tiebreaker when Djokovic converted his third set point when a Tsitsipas forehand sailed long.
A put-away smash in the second game of the third set gave Tsitsipas a second break point, which he converted by nailing a 134 KPH down-the-line backhand winner for a 2-0 lead.
In the next game Tsitsipas saved two break points to wiggle out from 15-40, taking four consecutive points as a frustrated Djokovic executed a racquet decapitation as he headed to his chair.
Djokovic would continue to probe, but he never would get another look at a break point. Tsitsipas ripped his 25th forehand winner crosscourt to earn a match point at 5-3, 40-15, and clinched the victory with another forehand winner to close affairs in two hours and 17 minutes.
Photo credit: Christopher Levy