Stefanos Tsitsipas’ campaign at the US Open started in fine style on Monday, with the fourth-seeded Greek easing past Albert Ramos-Vinolas in straight sets to reach the second round at Flushing Meadows.
New York has not been a happy hunting ground for the world number six, winning just one match across his two main draw appearances at the event, though he started very brightly today. Tsitsipas was in charge from the opening stages and a break in the fourth game helped him build a 4-1 lead, and he broke again on his first set point at 5-2 to take the opener.
Tsitsipas started the second set in a similar fashion to the first, asserting his dominance with another consolidated fourth game break to build a 4-1 lead. Ramos-Vinolas found himself unable to consistently challenge the fourth seed and was once again broken, with Tsitsipas comfortably holding serve to seal a two set lead after just an hour and 11 minutes of play on Court 17.
It was clear by now that the fourth seed was in full flow and would take some stopping, with Ramos-Vinolas unable to provide too much resistance. The Spaniard quickly found himself an early break down and Tsitsipas later went on to consolidate a second break to move a game away from victory. The Greek missed a first match point on his opponent’s serve but it proved to be second time lucky, with a final error from Ramos-Vinolas sealing a 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 victory.
There will certainly be tougher tests for Tsitsipas over the next fortnight though he should be incredibly satisfied with his performance, securing a victory in just an hour and 40 minutes and breezing through the vast majority of his service games; he did not face a single break point throughout and rarely faced little resistance when serving.
Having struggled at the tournament in the past, highlighted most clearly by a first round loss to Andrey Rublev, such a convincing win in this contest will likely be a huge confidence boost ahead of his second round contest on Wednesday. He will face French-American wildcard Maxime Cressy next, once again being a sizable favorite to progress.