Stefanos Tsitsipas, fueled by the confidence of winning his first ATP Masters 1000 title at last week’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, swept past Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime on Friday to reach the Barcelona Open semifinals.
The second-seeded Greek appeared to have all the time in the world, never allowing Aliassime an opportunity to get into the match.
He won comfortably in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.
Tsitsipas scored a perfect match: with few unforced errors, with winners from all directions and, especially, with a strategy that seemed to get the Canadian out of the box.
8th match in a row😍🔥 @steftsitsipas 🇬🇷 continues his great run, beats @felixtennis 🇨🇦 in straight sets (6-3,6-2) and reaches SFs where @janniksin 🇮🇹 awaits him💥#BCNOpenBS #ATPTour #ATP pic.twitter.com/173yiZUxDF
— Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (@bcnopenbs) April 23, 2021
Last week, Tsitsipas won the final of Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, also beating sixth seed Andrey Rublev in straight sets (6-3, 6-3).
Appearing in his third final at that level, Tsitsipas dropped just four points behind his first serve (24/28) to capture the second biggest title of his career after 71 minutes.
He will face Jannik Sinner who earlier upset the in-form Rublev for the fourth Top 10 win of his career.
Sinner is the youngest Barcelona semi-finalist since 2005, when 18-year-old Rafael Nadal won the first of his 11 Barcelona titles.
Tsitsipas the youngest player ranked in the top 10
Tsitsipas is the youngest player ranked in the top 10 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and has a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world, making him the highest-ranked Greek player in history.
Tsitsipas was the champion at the 2019 ATP Finals, becoming the youngest winner of the year-end championships in eighteen years. He has won five singles titles and reached ten finals on the ATP Tour.
Born into a tennis family where his mother Julia Apostoli was a professional on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tour and his father was trained as a tennis coach, Tsitsipas was introduced to the sport at age three and began taking lessons at age six.
As a junior, he was ranked No. 1 in the world. He also became the third Greek player, and first Greek male in the Open Era, to win a junior Grand Slam title with a victory in the 2016 Wimbledon boys’ doubles event.
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