A very hot day, and no we are not talking about the weather, we are talking about tennis. The Millennium Estoril Open first seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, booked a place in the final after a long battle against David Goffin.
First set to Goffin
.jpg)
The first set went normally until the fifth game when David Goffin broke his opponent serve to make the first break of the match. Now, up 3-2, it was a usual game to reach the 5-3 as there were no more break points faced by either of the players. In a tough ninth game, Goffin broke Tsitsipas service again to be up by one set. This last game of the set was very contested because the Belgian only closed the set at the third set point. The set ended 6-3.
Second set with a lot of breaks
Goffin started on serve on the second set and it was broken right away. He was put under pressure and in the first breakpoint, there was, Tsitsipas took the chance. That didn't mean much as the rest of the set was very similar with the players exchanging breaks in almost every game. There were breaks of serving in the first, the second, the third, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh and the eight games. The players were having trouble confirming their service games but at the ninth game, Goffin finally held it to reduce the difference to his opponent by 4-5. Stefanos struggled a little bit and had to recover from 15-40 down to win the set by 6-4.
Third set sending Tsitsipas to the final
The last set of the match lasted 57 minutes. It was the longer one. Unlike in the other set, in this one there was only one break of serve. There were very long games and rallies but not breaks. The Belgian started on serve again and the first breakpoint of the set was at the fourth game when The Greek was serving. He faced three breakpoints but saved them all, holding his serve. The next breakpoint came in the seventh game, when was the time for Goffin to serve. He saved them but two games later he lost his serve and Tsitsipas served for the set, closing it out in the second match point. The match ended 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Statements
David Goffin answered to the press at the end of the match at the press conference and said "It was a tough match. It was a fight that I needed and a great match, great intensity. We both had chances, I had a lot. It could've been him or me but in the end, he served a little bit better and it was just a few points that made the difference. Sometimes, I was on top of him and sometimes he came back a little bit. I had a lot of opportunities, I took some and also he saved some playing great tennis. It was a great match, really positive."
"I loved the match today. It was very tough and could prove once again that I like those difficult challenges and I can handle the situations when it's under pressure, under situations that are difficult to, let's say, believe that you can still win that match.", said Stefanos Tsitsipas. He added, "He was playing pretty well, he was returning pretty well, didn't miss a single return today, which gave me a hard time."
What now?
Stefanos Tsitsipas will face Pablo Cuevas in the final.
David Goffin will head to the Mutua Madrid Open where he will battle with Marton Fucsovics in the first round.