Tsitsipas Sweeps Past Munar In Barcelona
Stefanos Tsitsipas appeared to have all the time in the world on Wednesday, never allowing Jaume Munar an opportunity to get into the match at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.
The second-seeded Greek, fuelled by the confidence of winning his first ATP Masters 1000 title at last week’s Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, overcame early second-set resistance from the Spanish wild card in a 6-0, 6-2 victory over 78 minutes.
“It’s great to be able to play tennis like this today, even with a little rain in the second set,” said Tsitsipas. “I think I dealt with the situation well. I was serving well and felt comfortable from the baseline. I tried to be aggressive. My shots were working and I was trying to hit winners from all parts of the court.”
Tsitsipas, who hit 29 winners, has now won 23 of his 28 matches this year. He will next challenge Australia’s Alex de Minaur, the No. 14 seed, who beat Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 7-6(3), 6-2 in 86 minutes, in the third round.
[WATCH LIVE 1]Tsitsipas won 15 of the first 17 points, and hit 11 winners in the first set, which ended after 28 minutes when Munar hit a forehand into net. The World No. 5 won his seventh game in a row at the start of the second set, before an inevitable letdown.
Munar, who reached the AnyTech365 Andalucia Open final (l. to Carreno Busta) earlier this month, started to fire and although he could not convert break points at 1-1 and 2-3, he kept fighting. Tsitsipas won the final four games of the match, to improve to 3-0 lifetime against Munar in the ATP Head2Head series, finishing with a backhand crosscourt winner. The Greek won 21 of 24 first-service points.