Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas return to winning ways in Germany
Halle saw a pair of big name players find their feet after a disappointing start to the grass swing as Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas returned to winning ways on Monday.
Tsitsipas overcame a fierce challenge from Gregoire Barrere to progress at the ATP 500 event.
Later, his great rival Medvedev also found a way to get a win under his belt on grass.
At 6-7(6), 1-3, Tsitsipas was down a set and a break, but he would eventually wear out Barrere to win in two hours and twenty-two minutes. The Greek earned a second-round match against Nicolas Jarry at the grass-court event by being the more reliable player in the second half of the match, notably during the deciding tie-break.
“I just tried smiling. It kind of worked,” said Tsitsipas, when asked about how he kept his cool when trailing in the second set. “At that point you think, ‘I’ve been giving 100 per cent’. I was trying to think, ‘What can I do better?’
“I wasn’t too consistent with my returns. He had a few second serves where I tried to do much. I just thought I could have done much better in that department and psychologically I think it helped my opponent [settle].”
Tsitsipas feels that grass suits his game even if he isn’t able to play on the surface as much as he would like.
“I feel so in my natural habitat when I’m in front of the net,” said Tsitsipas. “Serve and volleying, I don’t get to do that very often and I feel like grass allows me to do that a bit more… My serve proved to be a massive weapon today in regards of giving me that first volley I was looking for and making my life a bit easier at the net.”
In a later match, Medvedev save the three break points he faced in a triumph that took just 71 minutes to complete.
Medvedev, who lost in the opening round at the Rosmalen Championships last week, struggled to build any rhythm despite what looked a comfortable win.
“It was a really tough match. It was definitely not the best match of my life,” Medvedev said in his on-court interview.
“I was still lacking the rhythm a little bit. But [regardless of] that, he played very well.
“I’m happy to win because sometimes grass is like this. You need to break one time in a set and serve well, and the match is yours,” Medvedev said.
“And that’s what I managed to do… I think I had only three games where I had chances on his serve. I managed to take two of them, amazing, and I saved all of the tough moments I had on my serve.”
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