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Yannick Hanfmann of Germany beat top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-4 3-6 6-2 in the second round of the Mallorca Open on Wednesday, June 28. The keenly-contested encounter lasted an hour and 46 minutes. Tsitsipas' underwhelming run in 2023 thus continues, as the 24-year-old Greek faced yet another disappointment.
Hanfmann will face veteran Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the quarterfinals on Thursday. The 41-year-old Spaniard, who is playing in his farewell tournament on home soil, will be the crowd-favorite, but the German will fancy his chances.
On that note, let's take a look at two things that stood out in the match:
#1 Hanfmann started the match with a bang
Hanfmann started the match in a resounding manner, breaking Tsitsipas in the very first game. He then held his serve to go two games up and maintained the lead for the remainder of the first set.
Tsitsipas played a number of backhand slices to take pace off the ball, but it often ended up allowing the World No. 48 ample time to set up his shots. The German dominated most of the crosscourt backhand exchanges and then hit winners off his inside-out and inside-in forehand.
Hanfmann also played a few good approaches before finishing points at the net with volleys and smashes.
#2 The German passed Tsitsipas a number of times
Not one to lie down, Tsitsipas bounced back well in the second set. He broke the German in the eighth game before serving out the set in the subsequent game. However, Hanfmann turned on the heat in the third set, breaking the Greek twice to win the match.
Tsitsipas ventured to the net quite often in the match, but the German managed to pass him on a number of occasions.
The Greek was able to win only 42% of the points on his second serve, while his opponent managed a much better 63%, which proved to be decisive. The German had six break-point opportunities in the match, of which three were converted.
Hanfmann thus fashioned the second big upset of the tournament following Pavel Kotov's win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Tuesday. He will head into his match with Lopez as the slight favorite.
