‘Aggressive’ Stefanos Tsitsipas hails his ‘fighting spirit’ after sailing past Kevin Anderson

Shahida Jacobs
Stefanos Tsitsipas in action

Aggression was key to Stefanos Tsitsipas’ solid win over Kevin Anderson in his opening match at the Western & Southern Open, but the fourth seed did have to turn on his “fighting spirit” when he was up against it at one point.

The reigning ATP Finals eased to a 6-1, 6-3 win over Anderson in just over an hour at Flushing Meadows in New York.

After Anderson won the opening game, Tsitsipas won the next six games to easily claim the set.

“I think the fact that I kept my serve very aggressive and I remained aggressive with my groundstrokes helped a lot and I’m very pleased that I was able to maintain my game throughout the entire match, same intensity,” he told ESPN after the match. “It was an excellent first set… it was great.”

Former US Open finalist Anderson put up a better fight in the second set and he found himself 0/40 up on the Greek’s serve at 2-2.

However, Tsitipas won the next four points and never looked back.

“I couldn’t remember. I kind of erased it from my mind,” Tsitsipas said of the crucial game. “That was a crucial game, being able to come back there and maintain the focus that I needed to be back in the match and not be a break down, that was a very good effort from me. It was my fighting spirit that turned on and my service points there were incredible.”

Next up is either American 16th seed John Isner or John Millman from Australia.

2019 runner-up David Goffin also reached the third round as he held off Borna Coric from Croatia 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 while 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov made it into the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Ugo Humbert from France.

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