Stefanos Tsitsipas won his third career ATP title, as he defeated Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 6-3 7-6 in the final of the Estoril Open.
The Greek, who was playing in his sixth career final, comfortably won the first set 6-3. He went on to break Cuevas’ serve in the opening game of the second set, and eventually went up 4-2 without facing a break point all match. However, Cuevas eventually broke Tsitsipas to love and leveled the set at 4-4. With Tsitsipas serving down 4-5 in the set, Cuevas even held a set point but was unable to convert. Tsitsipas was able to stay in the set and at 6-6, the two headed to a tiebreak.
Tsitsipas raced out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak, but the Uruguyan fought back to reduce the Greek’s lead to just 6-4. Nevertheless, Tsitsipas was able to close it out, winning the tiebreak 7-4 to win his third career ATP title, and his first on clay. This is also his second title of the year, which is tied for the most of any player. It ended a fantastic weekend for Greek tennis after Maria Sakkari won her first career WTA title in Morocco, marking the first time ever that two Greeks won titles in the same week, and even in the same year. Tsitsipas also became the first Greek man to ever win a clay court title. Additionally, Tsitsipas improved his record to 2-0 against Cuevas.
Tsitsipas will now move up from his current ranking of 10 in the world to number nine when Monday’s rankings are released and is very close to getting back up to his career-high of eight in the world. With few ranking points to defend over the next few months, it is expected that the Greek will continue to rise as long as he keeps up his high level of play.