After his sensational performance at the Australian Open, Greek tennis gun Stefanos Tsitspas fought hard before booking his place in the Sofia Open quarter-finals in Bulgaria, securing a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over German Jan-Lennard Struff on Thursday, having enjoyed the backing of the Bulgarian crowd.
"For the first time I play as if I was at home," said 20-year-old Tsitsipas, who reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open last month.
"I felt confident and I hope I will continue to show a good performance. Struff played very well but I was lucky in some of the games and it helped me a lot."
Tsitsipas who is seeded 2 in this tournament and ranked 12 in the world will meet Frenchman Gael Monfils, who defeated Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin 7-5 6-3, in the quarter-finals on Friday.
"My opponent does unpredictable things on the court. Sometimes you don't expect things and he'd play, I'd say, with your mind.
"He has seen my game, I have seen his ... I just need to be careful and be aware of what he's doing," the Greek star said.
