Stefanos Tsitsipas swats aside Pablo Cuevas to reach French Open third round
Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas produced a clinical performance to outclass Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday and advance to the French Open third round.
The 22-year-old Greek needed over three hours to rally from two sets down and beat little-known Spaniard Jaume Munar in round one and he could not have hoped for an easier second match on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Tsitsipas, who won the season-ending ATP Tour Finals in 2019, came into his second-round match at Roland Garros having defeated Cuevas in straight sets in all three previous meetings.
If Cuevas had any hopes for a different result, they were quickly snubbed out as the Greek jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the opening set and never looked back.
“Right now the way I see it, it will be the physical challenge of playing a Grand Slam,” Tsitsipas told reporters.
“Grand Slam tournaments are way different than any other tournaments we get to play the rest of the year.
“So it is very challenging coming in in one of them and it requires very good physicality.”
Tsitsipas broke the 34-year-old Cuevas`s serve six times while facing a single break point during his own service games and closed out victory in 88 minutes.
The Greek, who hit 26 winners against 18 unforced errors, sealed victory when Cuevas sent a service return long.
Next up for him will be Slovenia`s Aljaz Bedene, who defeated Nikola Milojevic of Serbia 7-5, 2-6, 6-1,7-6(4).
