Stefanos Tsitsipas advances at Erste Bank Open

Stefanos Tsitsipas advances at Erste Bank Open

Stefanos Tsitsipas advances at Erste Bank Open

Even though Greece's young tennis star had to switch his shoe in the third set of his first-round match at the Erste Bank Open, Tsitsipas still managed to defeat German Jan-Lennard Struff.

The fifth seed beat Struff 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 52 minutes.

"I'm happy that I was relaxed and in that kind of state of mind and mood. I think it helped overall my performance today," Tsitsipas said after the match.

"I think Jan played good today and we were both serving well, [playing well] from the baseline. I wouldn't say there were many rallies...It was a demonstration of serves and I managed to overcome the difficulties that were presented in his service games," he added.

Tsitsipas meet Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the next round.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG5X_obBdCG/

Earlier this week, Stefanos took a trip down the memory lane, posting a photo of himself with his younger brother Petros, with a heartfelt caption.

“Remembering the times when we would both dream of playing at the Olympics together one day. Fist pumping our way to a Grand Slam final in doubles. Sitting out in the garden chitchatting and revealing our dreams, goals and aspirations to one another. Being true and optimistic. Talking about playing on the big stage and wanting the best for one another. The competitiveness and fire we would show when playing one another at the mini-court we built out of tape in our basement,” he wrote.
Stefanos Tsitsipas- Greek professional tennis player

He is the youngest player ranked in the top 10 by the Association of Tennis Professionals and has a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world, making him the highest-ranked Greek player in history.