Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas has reached the semifinals at the French Open with a 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 victory over 13th seed Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Tsitsipas avenged a loss to Rublev in the Hamburg final just 10 days ago as he advances to his second career Grand Slam semifinal and first since the 2019 Australian Open.
Tsitsipas claims revenge on Rublev, books semifinal spot
Both men had to save break points early on with Rublev saving one in the second game and Tsitsipas fighting off a pair in the third game. The Russian made the first breakthrough of the match with a blazing forehand to take a 3-2 lead.
Serving for the set at 5-4, Rublev faced double break point and he overcooked a forehand to hand the break back to Tsitsipas. The Greek then held and broke again to take an opening set he looked almost certain to lose.
Early in the second set, each man was taken to deuce before Tsitsipas broke in the sixth game with a slice of luck, the Greek's backhand bouncing off of the top of the net, giving the Russian no chance at a reply to claim a 4-2 advantage.
After a hold put him a game away from the set, Rublev faced 30-30 and back-to-back backhand errors allowed Tsitsipas to break again and take a two-set advantage. The lone break of the third set came after the 13th seed missed on a forehand to give the Greek a 3-1 lead.
Rublev did well to save a match point on his own serve at 5-3, but, serving for the match, Tsitsipas raced out to a 40-0 lead and a forehand volley winner sent him into the semifinals after a fine performance.