Tennis
Tsitsipas – Safiulin 0-2: defeat and exclusion of No. 163
Stefanos Tsitsipas’ trip to the 250th tournament in Marseille ended prematurely with a 2-0 (6-4, 6-4) loss to Russia’s Roman Safiulin (No. 163), who knocked him out in the institution’s quarterfinals.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, who became champion in both 2020 and 2019 in the Open 13, could not qualify for the “4” best in Marseille Roman Safiulin (No. 163), knock him out in the quarterfinals of the tournament mafter an hour and 35 minutes of battle with 2:0 (6-4, 6-4).
No. 4 in the world and No. 1 on the board fought the 24-year-old Russian, who showed from the start of the game that he wasn’t ready to secure a place in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Tsitsipas served 10 aces and fought them off by making very important defences, a fact proved by the 11 (out of 13). Breakpoint he saved.
Safiulin was extremely competitive and avoided the 3rd set, scoring the biggest win of his career and qualified for the first ATP semi-final of his career. There he meets one of Felix Ozer-Aliasim and Ilya Ivaska.
For the first time since September 2018, Tsitsipas was defeated by a tennis player who is outside the top 100 in the world rankings.
Back then, it was Ricardas Berankis (No. 103) who beat him in the 2nd round of the Mets 250m in France. Now it’s Roman Safiulin who wins another historic victory on French soil.
Source: tennis24
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