French Open 2023: Stefanos Tsitsipas battles past Jiri Vesely to reach second round and avoid scare

Stefanos Tsitsipas had to survive a couple of scares but eventually battled past Jiri Vesely in his 2023 French Open first round match 7-5 6-3 4-6 7-6(7).

The world No. 5 arrived as one of the favourites for the tournament, with the absence of Rafael Nadal clearing the way for the top 10 as they look to take advantage of the clay specialist’s absence due to injury.

The Greek was a losing finalist two years ago and he succeeded in his attempt – so far – to go one better in 2023.

Vesely’s best effort is a third-round exit in 2017, and ranked outside the top 400, he was a certain underdog ahead of the action.

The initial exchanges went with serve but Vesely hinted at an upset when he was the first to break to go 3-1 up.

Tsitsipas was finally able to level at 5-5 with a break of his own, and broke again on his way to taking the first set 7-5.

He continued to lead into the second set and when he broke to 4-2 up, Vesely remained impassive but it became clear that he was struggling to match his opponent’s form.and Tsitsipas moved 6-3 up and just one set from victory to move into the second round.

The Czech player hit back in the third set as Tsitsipas struggled to maintain his consistency over the full course of the match, which may cost him against more established figures later in the tournament.

However, the crowd on Philippe-Chatrier were stunned in the third as a phenomenal display of big serving and powerful returns saw Vesely capitalise on some unforced errors and force a fourth set.

Tsitsipas quickly broke in the fourth set, but Vesely did the same and led at 4-3, threatening to go the distance. Tsitsipas sent down his ninth and 10th aces to go 5-5 as he attempted to push past the need for a fifth set.

The set went to a tie-break and after failing to take any of three set points, Vesely could not resist Stefanos any longer.

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