Stefanos Tsitsipas news: Greek ready for ‘ultimate challenge’ against Alex de Minaur in Rotterdam

ATP Tour
Stefanos Tsitsipas in action

Stefanos Tsitsipas brushed aside Ilya Ivashka in the second round of the Rotterdam Open and promised to step up his intensity against Alex de Minaur in the quarter-final.

The top-seeded Tsitsipas required just one hour and 11 minutes to ease past the Belarusian, winning 6-4, 6-1 after breaking once in the opening set and twice in the second set.

The Greek did take a bit of time to break down Ivashka as he only broke in game 10 of the first set, but once he found his groove he was unstoppable as he raced into a 5-0 lead in the second set.

“It’s a certain flow that you have to enter and it’s not easy to achieve that,” the world No 4 said.

“With persistence and trying to get in the zone with your mind, these are some of the things that help you get to a really high level of intensity and play.

“Today I had opportunities from the beginning of the match, a few break points here or there, but I stayed calm, and I knew that if I continued with that kind of pace a few more opportunities were going to present themselves. They eventually did and I handled them better.”

Up next is De Minaur after the Australian defeated Mackenzie McDonald from the United States 7-6 (8-6), 1-6, 6-4 and Tsitsipas knows he will need to up his game.

“He [de Minaur] has a lot of intensity in his game, moves really well, so that is going to be the ultimate challenge against him,” the Greek added.

“[I will try] to put a lot of intensity from my side and approach this [match] with patience as well.”

Alex De Minaur Ilya Ivashka Stefanos Tsitsipas

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