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Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece beat Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 in their first-round match at the French Open on Sunday, May 28.
The match went on for three and a quarter hours, as Tsitsipas, who is also the 2021 runner-up at the Paris Major, did just about enough to win the match.
The Greek, however, was given somewhat of a scare by the Czech, who refused to give up and took the match into the fourth set. On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:
#1. Stefanos Tsitsipas kept hitting winners with his forehand throughout the match
Stefanos Tsitsipas hit a lot of winners in the match with his formidable forehand. Jiri Vesely struggled with most of his returns and kept providing the Greek with short balls. Tsitsipas then dispatched a lot of short balls for outright winners with his forehand.
The Greek held his serve to love in a good number of his service games that went on to show the ineptness of Vesely's return. The Czech's sluggish movement hampered his cause throughout the match as well. Judging that he would not be able to contend with Tsitsipas from the baseline, the Czech went to the net frequently in the second set, but his volleying often let him down.
Moreover, Tsitsipas' inside-in and down-the-line forehand won him a lot of points in the match. The Greek did just about enough to win the first two sets by getting the decisive breaks of serve in each of them.
#2. The shortcomings in Tsitsipas' backhand allowed Vesely to bounce back
The left-handed Jiri Vesely was a bad match-up for Stefanos Tsitsipas in a sense that the former's crosscourt forehand was typically directed at the Greek's vulnerable backhand. The Czech also tried to serve mostly at Stefanos' backhand, especially from the deuce court. Whenever the Greek could go around his backhand to hit his return with his forehand, he was in a better position in the rally.
That pattern continued throughout the match, as the Czech broke Tsitsipas in the 10th game of the third set to win it and thereby reduce the deficit.
The Greek then broke Vesely in the third game of the fourth set, but the Czech broke back to level the score and then take the set into a tie-break. The Czech led 6-3 in the tie-break, but Tsitsipas came back strongly to win it 9-7 and finish off the match.
