London (AFP)

After Alexander Zverev last year, 21-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas, who won the London Tennis Masters, confirms the emergence of young players ready to run for the thirties Nadal, Djokovic or Federer .

Faced with Dominic Thiem, who was almost "old" with his 26 years and four participations in the Masters, the Greek crossed the final with the same carefree mind and the same talent as the rest of the tournament.

Last year's Winner of Next Gen, which serves as the Under-21 Masters, he has shown that he is equally at home in the big leagues.

His game always carried forward, with a lot of rhythm and pressure on the opponent cracked Roger Federer Saturday in the semifinals, with airs of passing witness between two generations.

On Sunday, opposed to Thiem who also beat the Swiss in the pool, as well as Novak Djokovic and defending champion Zverev in the half, the poster has kept all its promises.

"It's been like in a big eight, holding this trophy is incredible," sighed the winner immediately after the match.

- "A truly magnificent finale" -

"I am so relieved by this performance and this exceptional fight and having given everything on the course ...", he added, before turning to his unfortunate opponent: "this final we delivered on the course was really beautiful, I think that's what makes our sport so great, that's what tennis is all about. "

And it's true that the final was intense and indecisive, with sometimes an incredible level of play, as we have seen this week in the matches between Medvedev and Nadal, or those of Djokovic against Federer and Thiem.

Rate of first balls, direct fouls, winning points, there was not the thickness of a sheet of cigarette paper between the two finalists in the first set.

The assurance displayed by Tsitsipas with his combination of daring and efficiency - 12 points won on 13 netings in the first set pushed Thiem to his last digs to snatch the decisive points of the tiebreak of the first set (8 -6).

But we felt that the ascendancy of the Austrian, assured to become 4th in the next ATP classification after qualifying for the final, was only a thread.

Disturbed by a virus during the week and probably beginning a challenging course this week, Thiem often spoke to himself to encourage or lecture and had a terrible air hole at the beginning of the second set.

- Do better in grand slam -

Winning only 2 of the first 18 points, he found himself led 4-0, preferring to manage the end of the set in anticipation of a hypothetical second wind (6-2).

Determined and focused, Tsitsipas kept his grip on the match until 3-1 in the 3rd set, when suddenly the light returned to Thiem's ​​eye, which regained all its striking quality.

He was back in the sixth game, inflicting only the fourth loss on the Greek side of the tournament, and it was again in the tie break that the two men explained themselves.

Committing fewer direct errors than his opponent (17 against 3 in the last set), Tsitsipas recorded the best victory of his career and became the fourth winner in a row to win the Masters for the first time after Andy Murray (2016), Grigor Dimitrov (2017) and Alexander Zverev (2018).

But the Greek, winner at Estoril and Marseille this year, knows that it will be even more expected next season.

"This year was my best year, but I want to improve myself all the time, I beat some of the best players, which gave me confidence and I won matches in Masters 1000 and Grand Slam, but I think I can do better in Grand Slam, "he said.

© 2019 AFP