Jiri Vesely tested Greek Tsitsipas in the opening round of the French Open

French Open 2023 has been launched. The men’s and women’s opening round matches kick off the clay grand slam in Paris. One of the highlights of the first day was a match with Czech participation.

Jiri Vesely had a tough opponent at the start of the French Open. Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas is one of the favourites of this year’s French Open. For the Czech tennis player, this is his eleventh participation at Roland Garros, his best result so far is a qualification to the third round.

The Czech tennis player took advantage of a weaker moment at the beginning of the match, took the tournament’s top five’s serve and reliably held his own. Unfortunately, only until 5::4, when he unsuccessfully served to win the opening set. The momentum of the first set was there, with the Athens native taking the first set 7::5.

Vesely was able to concentrate at the start of the second set, again serving reliably. Unfortunately, with one exception. He offered Tsitsipas three break points in the sixth game and converted the last one into an important break. The native of Příbram could do nothing about the course of the second set.

Even at 0:2 set point, the almost two-meter tall Czech tennis player did not lay down his arms. In the third set he relied on his first serve the most and did not offer the favourite a single break point. He got two of them himself and used the second one, which was also a set point. Set Vesely.

The decisive moment of the match

The winner of the fourth set had to be decided in a tiebreak. Veselý fought the previous year’s finalist very fiercely. He got as far as set points.

Especially in the third one, on his serve, he was close. Veselý got a good shortening of the game, but the Greek finished the ball, won the point for himself and a few moments later raised his hands above his head to signal his advancement. It wasn’t easy, the Czech tennis player tested the Greek right at the start of the Paris Grand Slam.

In the end, a few details made the difference. ” I had the feeling that (Vesely) was starting to feel the weight of the moment a little bit. His serves weren’t as accurate, which I’m obviously happy about. That gave me a chance to start some exchanges and finally play more than three or four shots,” Tsitsipas described the decisive moments of the fourth set in an interview with the official Grand Slam website.

Tsitsipas’ next journey

The Greek will be the favourite in the next match as well. On the last day of May he will play against Spain’s Carballes Baen, the 58th player on the ATP rankings. What’s next?

A realistic match is against another Spaniard, Zapata Miralles, who is one of the seeded tennis players. Stefanos Tsitsipas had no problem with this Spaniard three weeks ago in Madrid.

Source: Roland Garros