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Young Greek sensation Stefanos Tsitsipas is making his presence felt once again as he successfully defended a title for the first time in his career by winning the Open 13 Provence Championships. In a heated clash between two of the most promising NextGen players, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Canadian teenager, Felix Auger Aliassime, it was the former that excelled as he rallied on to win the match and defend his title, in straight sets.
Barely facing any trouble, Tsitsipas looked to in great form as he broke the serve of Aliassime on three occasions while saving his own serve four times out of the five opportunities he had squandered in favour of the Canadian. Tsitsipas rushed to clinch victory and won the tournament, 6-3, 6-4. With this triumph, Tsitsipas becomes the first man since Thomas Enqvist in 1998 to successfully defend their crown at the Open 13 championships.
Seeded second in the tournament, Tsitsipas had a slow start to the year. He managed to register only one win at the season-opening ATP Cup out of the three that he played. Later, in the year's first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, the 21-year-old crashed out in the third round to big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic.
His outing at last week's Rotterdam Open was even poorer as he exited in his opening match to Hubert Hurkacz. However, coming into Marseille as the defending champion, Tsitsipas oozed a different kind of confidence and it revealed itself in the form of his magnificent title defence.
Aliassime, who was seeded seventh in the tournament is desperate for a title victory given the potential he has displayed over and over again. He finished as the finalist at Rotterdam Open, losing closely to Gael Monfils, last week and made it to another final in consecutive weeks with the Marseille Open. 2020 will be seeing a lot more Felix Auger Aliassime, that's for sure.
The winner of the ATP World Tour Finals 2019, Tsitsipas is finally having the stars align for him as he picks up his first title of the year and also, defends a title for the first time in his career. The NextGen players are firmly here and with such amazing burst of talent, will definitely stay to impress.
