Wins for Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex De Minaur at Next Gen ATP Finals

Shahida Jacobs
Stefanos Tsitsipas in action

Favourite Stefanos Tsitsipas made a solid start to the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals as he beat Jaume Munar in their Group A opener.

The 21-year-old Greek defeated Munar 4-3 (7-5), 4-3 (7-3), 3-4 (4-7), 4-2 in one hour and 52 minutes.

“It was very stressful from the beginning of the match. Every point counts. You can get broken any moment. So there was a lot of stress, many tie-breaks,” Tsitsipas told ATPWorldTour.com after the match.

“Great performance. Going to try to work on my serve in my next match and… grab my opportunity a little earlier because I didn’t do so today.”

He will meet Frances Tiafoe in his second match on Wednesday with the American also looking to make two wins from two matches after he beat Hubert Hurkacz 4-1, 4-2, 2-4, 4-3 (12-10).

Andrey Rublev, meanwhile, came through a five-setter to beat Taylor Fritz with the Russian scoring a 4-2, 1-4, 3-4 (4-7), 4-3 (7-2), 4-2 win.

“I played really well for this first match and I’m really happy because I beat such a great player, especially since the last time I lost against him,” Rublev said. “I’m really happy with my first match.”

He will battle Alex De Minaur for top spot in Group B in his second match after the Australian secured a 4-1, 4-1, 4-2 win over Liam Caruana in the late match.

“It was fun. The whole week I was really looking forward to playing with this new format and it was great,” De Minaur said. “I actually didn’t feel too much of a difference. I enjoyed every second out there. The atmosphere was great and I couldn’t think of a better way to start.”

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