Tsitsipas turned the Sinner and the Foro Italico public into Rome

the greek Stefanos Tsitsipas beat this Friday, in the quarterfinals of Rome Masters 1,000in Italian Jannik Sinner (7-6 (5) and 6-2) and the public in the center court of For Italico where he earned a place for the semifinals of the tournament, where he will now face the German alexander zverev.

Before the Sinner, Tsitsipas was expected from the beginning in Rome. After more than a hesitant start in the Roman capital, where he struggled to get through the first and second rounds, against Belarusian Grigor Dimitrov and Russian Karen Khachanov, the Greek this time won the success with greater solvency, the first of two sets.

He did it against the best rival he faces so far and in front of an audience dedicated to his opponent. He has already said at a press conference that he does not care if the public encourages his rival, that he will play tennis.

And so he did. He fought the Italian and the ‘tifosi’ blows and used his serve, ten direct, to neutralize the precise left shots of a Sinner who saw in that blow his greatest virtue of the fight.

The first set lasted about an hour and a half, where the equality of the two was the protagonist. Each gave up on a service, which inevitably led to a tiebreaker. Tsitsipas broke the serve twice and lost only once, enough to take the lead.

In the second set, Greek was the clear dominator. He snatched two serves from locals and sentenced a game that was stopped for ten minutes, with a match point for Tsitsipas, because one of the attendees needed medical attention at the stands.

The Greek, number 5 in the world and fourth favorite in the tournament, will face Zverev in the semifinals, number 3 in the ranking, knocking out Chilean Cristian Garín in the quarterfinals and starting as the second favorite in the tournament.