Tsitsipas, Medvedev both lost in round 4 of Roland Garros

Tsitsipas leads the ATP Tour this season in wins (34), but is powerless against his teenage opponent. Rune, by defeating Tsitsipas, became the first Danish player to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam in the Open era. A year ago he was still outside the top 300 ATP, but now will definitely climb to at least 31st place in the world. Rune last month won his debut ATP title at the Bavarian clay tournament in Germany, where he also shocked the world by winning. Alexander Zverev. At Roland Garros, Rune dropped the top two seeds Denis Shapovalov and Tsitsipaslosing just one set on the way to the quarterfinals.

Before creating a shock on the afternoon of May 30, Rune had never passed the first round of a Grand Slam. He was eliminated early at the US Open 2021 and Australian Open 2022. But, the adult player from the academy Patrick Mouratoglou impressed when he took a set of Novak Djokovic in New York last year.

Playing in the center court Philippe Chatrier does not put the 19-year-old talent under pressure. His good serve, deep forehand, steady backhand along the string and his ability to close his hand helped Rune overwhelm Tsitsipas, the leading contender for this year’s title. Rune also made good use of his senior’s second serve to apply pressure and won 64% of the points from these returns.

Taking the initiative in ball games helped Rune have 11 break-points for the whole match. He took advantage of five of them, including twice in the first set and twice in the fourth set. Tsitsipas only took advantage of three of the eight break-points, including the last game that had to be won. The Greek tennis player had three break-points in this game, thanks to risky play, but missed all of them. Rune then took advantage of the first match-point after a series of balls from the end of the field that Tsitsipas missed.

Rune won the 2019 Roland Garros youth tournament. Right in the first round of Roland Garros, the Danish player reached the quarterfinals. The same 19-year-old player Carlos Alcaraz also did the same. The clay Grand Slam thus featured two teenage players in the top eight for the first time, since 1994. Rune’s opponent in the quarterfinals was eighth seed Casper Ruud.

The thirst for Grand Slam still persists with Tsitsipas. He lost the final of Roland Garros last year after winning the first two sets against Djokovic. The fourth seed went to Paris in high form, winning the Monte Carlo Masters, reaching the semi-finals of the Madrid Open and the final of the Rome Masters. But, he struggled from the start, spending five sets in the first round and four sets in the second.

Tsitsipas was the first of the top eight seeds to leave Roland Garros. The next one is Daniil Medvedev. The number two tennis player in the world played weakly against the 33-year-old senior Marin Cilic. In front of the Croatian opponent, Medvedev was inferior in the double attacks at the end of the field, losing quickly 2-6, 3-6, 2-6.

Cilic didn’t have to save a break-point in the whole game, with a 90% win rate of first-ball points. He is leading in the percentage of winning points from the end of the field in the tournament. The 2014 US Open champion will meet Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals. This is the first time Cilic has appeared in the eighth round of the strongest players at a Grand Slam, since 2018.

Vy Anh