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#NextGenATP Greek will seek second win against Top 10 Goffin
Stefanos Tsitsipas won a battle of #NextGenATP 19-year-olds at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Monday.
Competing with confidence after two straight-sets victories in the qualifying tournament, Tsitsipas knocked out Canadian Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 6-4 in 81 minutes for a place in the second round.

Tsitsipas won four of the first five games and recovered from 0/40 at 4-2. From 5-3 in the first set, the Greek qualifier won three straight games, but was soon pinned back by Shapovalov, who was also making his debut at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. The crucial break came in a 10-point seventh game of the second set.
World No. 71 Tsitsipas will next challenge sixth seed and last year’s semi-finalist David Goffin of Belgium on Tuesday evening. He earned his only previous Top 10 victory last year in Antwerp against Goffin to gain a 1-0 lead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.
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After losing the first game, it was one-way traffic for Spain’s No. 11 seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who defeated Peter Gojowczyk 6-4, 6-3 in 80 minutes. Bautista Agut has already picked up two ATP World Tour trophies this year at the ASB Classic (d. del Potro) and the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (d. Pouille). He awaits France’s Benoit Paire or Feliciano Lopez of Spain.
Last year’s finalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas, the No. 15 seed, wrestled control away from American Jared Donaldson in a 6-3, 6-3 win over one hour and 37 minutes. He will next play Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany or American Tennys Sandgren, who finished runner-up in Houston on Sunday at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship (l. to Johnson).

Greek faces Thiem on Friday for the third time in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series (0-2)
Stefanos Tsitsipas, who reached his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final in Barcelona on Thursday, is only 19 years old, a leading candidate to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, where eight of the world's best 21-and-under players will compete from 6-10 November.

But the 6'3” right-hander is also leading his entire country. For nearly everything the Greek achieves on the ATP World Tour, he becomes the 'first' or the first in decades' time from Greece to celebrate the milestone.

Last October, Tsitsipas became the first Greek to enter the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings and the first Greek semi-finalist (2017 Antwerp) in 44 years (Kalogeropoulos, 1973 Des Moines). And after his start to the European clay-court season this year, Tsitsipas is well on his way to becoming the first Greek to enter the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings.

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“I'm very happy to represent my country on the biggest stages, at the biggest tournaments,” Tsitsipas told ATPWorldTour.com. “It's very satisfying to help tennis grow up in Greece.”

The 19-year-old advanced to the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, beating 2017 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters finalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas, at his home tournament, 6-4, 7-5. The Spaniard is the second clay-court stalwart that Tsitsipas has swept past this week at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament. The Greek eliminated seventh seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-2, 6-1 in the second round.

“It's the surface. I feel very confident when I step on the dirt. I always show my best tennis on this surface,” Tsitsipas told ATPWorldTour.com. “I really hope the confidence keeps going. I'm very satisfied with my tennis so far.”

Tsitsipas grew up playing on the red dirt in Athens. He learned how to construct points on clay from a coach who emphasised attacking and approaching the net more so than using heavy spin to win matches.

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Recent practices with Patrick Mouratoglou have also helped. Tsitsipas splits his training between his home Athens and the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Nice.

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“The things he told me have changed my game until now. I'm playing on a completely different level and when you play on a level where you feel that confident and so sure of yourself, nothing can stop you,” said Tsitsipas, who is also coached by his father, Apostolos Tsitsipas, and was coached by his mother, Julia Salnikova, a former professional player in the Soviet Union.

This season has marked quite the turnaround for Tsitsipas, who struggled to win a tour-level match for much of 2017. The teenager dropped his first eight tour-level contests before beating Russian Karen Khachanov at the Rolex Shanghai Masters last October. Tsitsipas had earned his opportunities, too: He qualified an ATP-best eight times last year.

But since Shanghai, Tsitsipas has reached one semi-final (Antwerp 2017), three ATP World Tour quarter-finals (2018 Doha, Dubai, Barcelona) and has played better than .500 tennis (12-10).

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The runs have put him in great position to make his debut at the Next Gen ATP Finals. After his trip to the Barcelona quarter-finals, he's projected to climb to fifth place in the ATP Race To Milan, which will determine seven of the eight players in Milan. The eighth will be chosen by wild card.

Tsitsipas got a taste of the new event last year when he served as an alternate. “All the NextGenATP players are giving me motivation to do better,” he said. “I see them, the way they do things and I want to do the same things they do. I want to stay high in the ATP Rankings and follow their footsteps.”

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Greek to next face Carreno Busta, who beat Dimitrov

#NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas recorded the biggest win of his career on Friday to reach the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell semi-finals. The 19-year-old capitalised on lapses in concentration from World No. 7 Dominic Thiem, who consistently played deep behind the baseline, to win 6-3, 6-2 in 80 minutes.

Tsitsipas, who is currently No. 7 in the ATP Race To Milan for a spot at the Next Gen ATP Finals in November, will next challenge fifth-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, who defeated second seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.

Thiem came with a point of clinching a double-break advantage for 3-0, but let Tsitsipas back into their third FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting of 2018 (Qatar ExxonMobil Open, BNP Paribas Open). Thiem hit a double fault at 3-4, 30/40, and then saw Tsitsipas close out the 50-minute opener with a forehand approach winner.

Two consecutive forehand errors by Thiem at 2-2, in a game of four unforced errors, handed Tsitsipas the first break of the second set. Two games later, Thiem gifted Tsitsipas with another service break with a backhand error. The World No. 63 won the last 14 points of the match with a hold to love, finishing with a backhand that Thiem couldn’t scramble back.
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Tsitsipas had previously recorded the first Top 10 win over his career over No. 10-ranked David Goffin in October 2017 at the European Open in Antwerp.

Thiem, who reached last week’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters quarter-finals (l. to Nadal) leaves Barcelona with a 21-6 match record on the season, which includes the Argentina Open crown (d. Bedene).

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Later in the afternoon, Carreno Busta also reached his first Barcelona semi-final by beating second seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-3, 7-6(4) in one hour and 37 minutes.

Carreno Busta edged the first set, which featured six service breaks, and took a 4/2 advantage in the second set tie-break when Dimitrov hit a backhand slice into the net. The pair’s sixth meeting (3-3) ended with Dimitrov striking a forehand long.

World No. 11 Carreno Busta is now 3-22 lifetime against opponents in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings (2-9 on clay). Dimitrov, last week’s Monte-Carlo semi-finalist, drops to a 16-8 mark on the season.

DID YOU KNOW?
Stefanos Tsitsipas started the 2018 season at No. 91 in the ATP Rankings and this week is at a career-high No. 63. After beating Thiem, he has a 2-4 record against Top 10 stars.