ATP Tournament in Mallorca, Quarter Finals, Thursday, 23.06.2022
Seeded at position 2, you inevitably belong to the circle of the absolute top favourites in Mallorca. Stefanos Tsitsipas wants to really get going before Wimbledon and do better than last time.
He had a few problems at the start, but otherwise had everything under control. Now he has to play an opponent he has already met once this year.
Actually, he is playing a good year, but has nevertheless plummeted to sixth place in the world rankings. Stefanos Tsitsipas wants to work in the next few weeks to turn a good year into a very good one.
Recently, he was not entirely satisfied with his results. The round of 16 at the French Open with a loss to Holger Rune, the defeat to Andy Murray in Stuttgart and the defeat to Nick Kyrgios in Halle were not exactly the best results.
But one has to give the Greek credit: He was strong against Kyrgios, but his opponent was just that little bit better. Now it’s time to put in a good performance in the last preparation tournament for Wimbledon.
In the first round, Tsitsipas started against Ilya Ivashka. The bookmakers had left room for a surprise. This did not happen, but in the end it was still not a clear-cut win.
In the end, he broke twice and won 6-4, 6-4. The fact that he didn’t give Ivashka a single chance to break was definitely strong. With 85% winning points on the first serve and their 78% on the second, the service was definitely the key to success.
Those who know the 23-year-old know that he is not always comfortable on grass. At the last two tournaments in Wimbledon, for example, he had to stop right after round 1.
But first of all, Tsitsipas wants to reach the semi-finals on Mallorca. To do so, he has to beat Marcos Giron. The fact that the German betting companies favour him is no surprise and is perhaps also connected with the direct duel between the two in Acapulco.
A few weeks ago, Tsitsipas won 6-3, 6-4 and didn’t leave much to be desired. Then, as now, we met in the quarter-finals. Giron knows: “I am the clear underdog in the duel with the world number 6.
The US American has already played two matches, or rather he has them in his bones. He had to fight for hours in three sets each time, will he run out of steam on Thursday?
A 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 against Botic van de Zandschulp opened his tournament on Mallorca, then he won 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 against his compatriot Mackenzie McDonald. Strong, because in both duels he had started rather as an underdog.
With 81% of points won on first serve, his service in the round of 16 was particularly noteworthy. Giron is only 1.80m tall, so Tsitsipas towers over him by a whopping 13 centimetres. Will that be decisive? McDonald was only 1.78m tall on Wednesday.
Strongly fought, but directly eliminated, that describes the last two tournaments best for Giron. Both against Jan-Lennard Struff (5-7, 7-5, 6-7) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (3-6, 7-5, 3-6) a win would have been well within the realms of possibility.
My Giron Tsitsipas Tip
Stefanos Tsitsipas must deliver in Mallorca if he wants to travel towards Wimbledon with a broad chest. He dominated his service in the opener, but still struggled often.
In my analysis of Marcos Giron, I could see that he has been doing really well for a few weeks now, usually coming up very short. Since he has already won two real thrillers in Mallorca, I trust him to at least keep up on Thursday and I’m betting on him:
Over 21,5 games
