Toronto (Canada) (AFP)
Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 ATP in Toronto by easily beating Norway's Casper Ruud 6-1, 6-4, and will face American Reilly Opelka, who qualified after his victory over the Spanish Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 7-6 (7-1).
Tsitsipas, with his new status of 3rd at ATP, who had celebrated his 23rd birthday the day before, beat the 22-year-old Norwegian and seeded N.6, in less than 75 minutes.
"My intentions were clear from the start and my instinct was to stay on the baseline. I'm very happy with what I'm doing right now and am surprising myself with the quality of my game," said the Greek player. who thus won his 45th game of the season.
Tsitsipas won two tournaments this year on clay in Lyon and Monte-Carlo.
In the half in Toronto, he will face the American Reilly Opelka, who defeated Bautista Agut.
In the 1st set the American giant (2m11 and 102 KG), 32nd player in the world, easily dominated the Spaniard who was seeded No. 10 and 17th in ATP thanks in particular to his impregnable service, in just thirty minutes.
The second round saw the awakening of Baustista-Agut (33) can be further marked by his victory in three sets over Argentinian Diego Schwartzman on Thursday.
The Spaniard raced in the lead throughout the set before the 23-year-old American caught him 6-6.
Giant Reilly Opelka celebrates his victory over Roberto Bautista Agut at the Masters 1000 in Toronto, August 13, 2021 Vaughn Ridley Getty / AFP
After a small shower that interrupted the match for a few moments, Opelka won the tie-break on his first match point, out of the five he had.
The French Gaël Monfils, seeded N.11 and who had qualified Thursday against the American Frances Tiafoe, must meet from 19:00 local (23:00 GMT) another American, John Isner, winner Thursday of the Russian Andrey Rublev , 4th seed of the tournament.
The last quarter-final will oppose the Russian Daniil Medvedev, seeded N.1, to the Polish Hubert Hurkacz.
© 2021 AFP