WATCH: Pedro Cachin gets hot shot of the day with rocket tweener, but Stefanos Tsitsipas gets the win
Pedro Cachin claimed the shot of the day honours at the Barcelona Open on Wednesday, but Stefanos Tsitsipas walked away with the win with an impressive display.
The match itself never really delivered in terms of quality as Tsitsipas dominated the encounter, but Cachin managed to provide the highlight of the match as early as the fourth game.
After Tsitsipas played an unorthodox drop shot, the Argentine got the wheels out and managed to return a deft volley to the left of the Greek. The second seed was at full stretch as he chipped the ball down the line to Cachin’s right, probably thinking he had won the point.
However, the world No 69 was not to be denied as he chased down the shot, gathered his composure and he then made the sweetest of contact with the ball as he played a cross-court shot between his legs, leaving Tsitsipas with no chance of keeping the point alive.
Naturally the spectators at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona gave Cachin a standing ovation.
After the match Tsitsipas was full of praise for the hot shot of the day.
“I have never seen such a good tweener in my entire career! I think the hot shot goes to him for today,” he said.
Tsitsipas’ performance throughout the match was also quite hot as the world No 5 broke edged ahead with a break in game five before serving out the set five games later.
He took complete control of the clash early in the second set as he raced into a 4-0 lead with two breaks before wrapping things up on his first match point, winning 6-4, 6-2 in 69 minutes.
“I was able to bring good tennis out there on the court,” the two-time Grand Slam finalist said. “I kept mixing it up. I kept being very aggressive, more than I’m used to, so the whole evaluation is positive. I’m happy with how things evolved over the course of the match.
“It’s one of those matches I was able to figure out from early on, keep up with the pace, and anything that was being thrown at me I was reacting to it very positively and being very smooth on the court.”
Up next is 14th seed Denis Shapovalov after the Canadian defeated qualifier Jozef Kovalik 6-4, 6-3 and the winner of that clash will face either eighth seed Alex de Minaur or 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-final.
Tsitsipas is a two-time runner-up in Barcelona as he lost against Rafael Nadal in the 2018 and 2021 finals, but he is dreaming of finally going all the way this year.
“It’s always a motivation for me when I step out on these courts,” he said. “Obviously, good memories are in the back of my head. It’s two finals, but still you keep the positives instead of sticking too much to what went wrong in [those finals].
“I’m just happy to be here… I’m just enjoying the tennis and hoping ‘Why not?’ for the final, but still a very long way to go.”
