The Egyptian Sherif gave a big surprise and Tsitsipas stopped Thiem

Mayar Sherif became the first Egyptian to reach the fourth round of the WTA 1,000 in Madrid after winning for the second time in her career as a player in the top ten of the ranking, the French Caroline Garcia.

Sherif defeated the French tennis player in two sets, 7-6 (2) and 6-3, ending 2022 with five titles from eleven in her history, including the WTA Finals.

The tennis player from Cairo only once before Madrid imposed himself on a ‘top ten’ rival. It went to the Greek Maria Sakkari, in the Parma final. Now he has surpassed the French, fifth in the world.

The Egyptian, who made her debut in Madrid, where she previously eliminated the Italian Camila Giorgi and Anastasia Kalinina, took one hour and 42 minutes to achieve her goal and meet the Belgian Elise Mertens, twenty-four seed, eliminating German Jule Niemier 6-3, 6-4.

Sherif, 59 in the WTA ranking, was the winner in Parma last year, her only title, and is a finalist in Cluj in 2021.

Tsitsipas takes the ‘classic’

In a duel between two classics of recent times, one still on the front line, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, and the other determined to return, the Austrian Dominik Thiem, it was the Greek who managed to win evenly that match, 6-3, 1 -6 and 7-6 (5), and place in the third round of the Master 1,000 in Madrid.

Two tournament finalists will face off in the primetime night session. The Greek, fifth in the world, runner-up in 2019. The Austrian, on the verge of winning the title in 2017 and 2018. This is a second-round duel with airs of quarterfinals or semifinals.

Thiem started as a shot, who sometimes showed tennis at its best stage, which led him to become third in the world and one of the most powerful on clay to live in its golden age in 2020 when he won the United States Open and He played in the finals of the Australian Open and ATP Finals, as well as in the Caja Mágica.

Tsitsipas didn’t find a way until the second set when he was down and needed more than he had so far. More risk, more decisions on key actions. The Greek, fifth in the world and still looking for his first victory in 2023, where his peak was in the Barcelona finals and the Australian Open, found him and had a strong reaction.

In the third set, victory always revolved around Tsitsipas, who was able to break his opponent’s serve in the eleventh game and had five break points avoided by Thiem. And he came first, in the tiebreaker, on match points. He hit the second one, the rest. And he sealed the victory after two hours and 17 minutes.