By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday October 10, 2019
Stefanos Tsitsipas rallied from a set down to knock off World No.1 Novak Djokovic at the Shanghai Masters.
Photo Source: Getty
Earlier on Friday Stefanos Tsitsipas qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals in London. Later in the evening he made sure nobody missed the news by accessorizing his milestone with a eye-opening upset.
The 21-year-old Greek rallied for a stunning victory in China on Friday, stopping World No.1 Novak Djokovic from a set down to reach the semifinals of the Rolex Shanghai Masters 3-6 7-5 6-3.
Tsitsipas notched his first win over a reigning World No.1 and his second over Djokovic in three tries as he took control of a contest that seemed to favor Djokovic for nearly two full sets.
It was tennis of the highest order from both players for most of the match.
After falling behind 3-0 in the opener Tsitsipas got his game on track, but he could not find a way to solve the Serb’s serve for quite some time. Tsitsipas came away empty in the opener, failing to convert the only break point he saw as Djokovic locked up the opener 6-3 in 31 minutes, but Tsitsipas was undeterred and kept up the chase in a tight second set.
Slowly but surely the Greek made nuanced adjustments that allowed him to hold greater sway in the points, and even though he missed on his first two break points of the second set, Tsitsipas came through on his third in a tense 12th game when he converted his second set point to send things to a decider.
By that time Tsitsipas was hitting the ball with more authority. He struck his backhand down the line more often and generally hit his groundstrokes with more pace, aggression and urgency.
He needed to against an in-form Djokovic.
The World No.1 got off to a fast start and behind fantastic all-court tennis was threatening to secure a straight-sets win over Tsitsipas. He frequently outlasted Tsitsipas on long, grueling rallies, and was tactically stellar, making sure to direct traffic to Tsitsipas' backhand side. But the World No.7 would not give an inch and he kept protecting his serve with aplomb, using his slice serve in the deuce court to great effect as he maintained a first-serve percentage of 72 percent on the evening.
When Djokovic failed to hold serve to force a tiebreaker let in the second set, the momentum was gone from his side.
The Greek made sure it stayed with him.
It was Tsitsipas who displayed the highest quality in the deciding set as he converted his third break point of a wildly entertaining fourth game to draw first blood for a break and a 3-1 lead.
It was an impressive mental achievement for the Greek because he could have easily let himself become discouraged after missing his first two break points, especially the second one that ended when he anticlimactically dumped a smash into the net after a long point.
On his third break point, however, Tsitsipas rose to the occasion and whacked a deep forehand return that drew the error from Djokovic—with the break and a 3-1 lead in tow, he never looked back from that point forward.
While serving for the victory, Tsitsipas would even make amends for the smash that he botched earlier when he cracked an overhead into the open court to seal his victory on his third match point.
The victory sends Tsitsipas into a semifinal clash with world-beater Daniil Medvedev. Medvedev eased past Fabio Fognini in straight-sets on Friday in Shanghai.
Djokovic, meanwhile, will leave Shanghai for the first time without reaching at least the semifinals.
The Serb’s chances at making a run at the ATP’s No.1 year-end ranking will also take a hit. Djokovic is 1,270 points behind Nadal in the race. He also loses a Masters 1000 hard court quarterfinal when winning the first set for the first time in his career.
Of the 102 players that have face Djokovic at least three times, Tsitsipas (2-1) is now one of the four to have a winning record against the 16-time major champion. The other three are Fernando Gonzalez (2-1), Ivo Karlovic (2-1) and Andy Roddick (5-4).