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Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Ben Shelton 7-6, 7-6 in a second-round match of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati last Wednesday, August 16. The match lasted for around a couple of hours, as the 25-year-old Greek emerged victorious after a stiff fight.
Tsitsipas will face Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the third round on Thursday. The Pole is a big server, but Tsitsipas will start as the favorite in that match. The Greek will hope to make a deep run in the tournament after an unflattering run in 2023 thus far.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:
#1 Ben Shelton kept rushing the net throughout the match
Ben Shelton took the attack to Stefanos Tsitsipas from the beginning. He kept rushing the net frequently after playing approaches. The American then moved forward to finish points with volleys and overhead smashes. He won 20 of the 24 points (almost 83%) at the net in the match.
Shelton kept pushing Tsitsipas behind with his powerful forehand to put pressure on the Greek. However, Tsitsipas performed better when it mattered the most. He won the first set tie-break 7-3 to win and go one up in the match. Shelton was always going to find it difficult to overturn the one-set deficit.
#2 Stefanos Tsitsipas relied on his first serve a lot
Stefanos Tsitsipas, meanwhile, relied a lot on his powerful first serve. Ben Shelton struggled to deal with his first serve for the majority of the match. The Greek stayed in the baseline for the most part and came up with passes at times to stun an onrushing Shelton, including in the second set tie-break to take a 3-1 lead.
Neither of the players faced a single break point in the match and the second set also went into a tie-break. However, Tsitsipas won five straight points in it to register a win. His superior experience helped him during crunch moments in both sets, as Shelton lost the match narrowly.
Tsitsipas won 93% of the points on his first serve in the match against Shelton’s 84%. The American fared better with his second serve, but that was not enough to win him the match. Shelton hit 26 winners in the match against Tsitsipas' 23 but committed a lot more unforced errors (16) than the World No. 4 did (5) in the match.
