Tsitsipas beats Rublev to reach French Open semis

Stefanos Tsitsipas got past Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 to progress to the French Open semifinal.

Published : Oct 07, 2020 22:14 IST , Paris

Stefanos Tsitsipas will face either world number one Novak Djokovic or Pablo Carreno Busta in the French Open semifinal.

Stefanos Tsitsipas will face either world number one Novak Djokovic or Pablo Carreno Busta in the French Open semifinal.

Greek fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his second Grand Slam semifinal as he raised his game after a slow start to defeat Russian Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 at the French Open on Wednesday.

Before the quarterfinal on Court Philippe Chatrier, the 13th-seeded Rublev had won both previous tour-level meetings against fellow 22-year-old Tsitsipas with their last encounter less than two weeks ago in the final in Hamburg.

The Russian looked set to keep his record intact as he served for the first set at 5-4 but Tsitsipas, who also reached the semifinals at last year's Australian Open, then won three straight games to take the opener.

Tsitsipas did not look back from there and broke his opponent three more times in the next two sets to set up a meeting against either world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia or Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.