Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his second Grand Slam semi-final on Wednesday with a straight-sets win over Andrey Rublev at Roland Garros, setting up a potential clash with world number one Novak Djokovic for a place in the championship match.
The Greek fifth seed avenged last month’s loss to Rublev in the Hamburg final by defeating the Russian 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 to match his breakout run at the 2019 Australian Open.
He will play Djokovic or Spanish 17th seed Pablo Carreno Busta in the last four on Friday.
“I’ve been feeling really comfortable on this court and despite not having a good start and being a break down, I remembered what a big fighter I am,” said Tsitsipas.
“It’s also about fighting and trying to find solutions in difficult moments. I managed to put my brain to work.”
Tsitsipas, 22, has now won 15 successive sets at the tournament having been two sets down to Jaume Munar in the opening round.
However, that streak looked in peril when Rublev, also making his first French Open quarter-final appearance, served for the opening set at 5-4.
A loose game from the Russian 13th seed allowed Tsitsipas to recover and he rattled off four consecutive games to take the lead.
Tsitsipas, last year’s ATP Finals champion, dominated the second set to leave Rublev on the brink, profiting from a favourable netcord to break at 3-2 after carving the opening following a 28-shot rally.
Only Djokovic has won more than Rublev’s three titles in 2020, but the world number 15 was powerless to stop a supreme Tsitsipas who closed out victory inside two hours.
Tsitsipas, who was the first Greek to have made the quarter-finals in Paris, crunched 35 winners and made just 17 unforced errors.
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