Tsitsipas sweats into French Open fourth round

[June 01, 2019]    PARIS (Reuters) - Greek sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas dug deep to book his place in the French Open fourth round on Saturday, completing a 7-5 6-3 6-7(5) 7-6(6) victory against Serbian Filip Krajinovic after play was suspended on Friday night.

Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas in action during his third round match against Serbia's Filip Krajinovic. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

The match resumed at 5-5 in the third set and Tsitsipas looked wobbly in losing the tiebreak before finally winning in four sets thanks to his opponent's nerves on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

A runner-up in Madrid and semi-finalist in Rome in the run-up to the claycourt Grand Slam, Tsitsipas had breezed through the first two sets and appeared on the brink of a no-nonsense win when play resumed in searing heat on Saturday.

But Krajinovic threw everything he had at Tsitsipas, which unsettled the 20-year-old.

Two straight double faults handed a break to Krajinovic in the fourth set, but the Serbian let his guard down and allowed Tsitsipas to get another crack at a tiebreak.

The Greek saved a set point as Krajinovic lost his composure, hitting long on the first match point.

Tsitsipas next faces either 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka or Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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