PARIS: Greek Tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas had to dig deep once again to clinch the victory in the ongoing French Open as Zdenek Kolar kept the former involved in another slugfest.
The fourth-ranked tennis player Tsitsipas held his nerves calm to blunt the 134th-ranked Kolar by 6-3, 7-6 (8), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (7) just past the four hours mark.
The youngster showed great determination and grit as he tested the resilience of his better-ranked opponent but missed out on the fourth set to force a fifth as Tsitsipas levelled the last tiebreaker at 6-6 before closing out the match.
The Greek started off strongly as he claimed the first set in just 35 minutes. Kolar, on the other hand, responded quickly and took a 4-1 lead only for Tsitsipas to level his ante up and force a tiebreaker. The former, in the end, managed to claim the second set after a long tiebreaker.
Kolar, however, kept himself in the hunt as he showed character to cut the lead to 2-1 as he forced the fourth set after claiming the tiebreaker in the third 7-6(3).
The fourth set of the match followed the same pattern as both remain indulged in another see-saw battle but Tsitsipas clinched the victory by claiming a second tiebreaker overall.
Tsitsipas will now lock horns with the 95th-ranked Mikael Ymer of Sweden for a place in the fourth round of the tournament.
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