Vienna Open: Tsitsipas gets out of jail against Machac

Stefanos Tsitsipas edged out qualifier Tomas Machac 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals of the Vienna Open at the Wiener Stadthalle on Thursday afternoon.

The No 4 seed left it late to seal his victory against his Czech opponent, at one stage trailing by a break at 4-1 in the final set. However, cometh the hour, cometh the man, and that’s exactly what Tsitsipas did in the final set. When the chips were down, the Greek found his first serve to hold easily, putting pressure on Machac’s serve and winning six of the last seven games in the third set to close out the match.

While Machac played excellent for big stretches of this clash, he’ll be disappointed to have played several tame volleys in the latter half of the deciding set, providing Tsitsipas with too many easy passing opportunities.

Tsitsipas, ranked No 7, will face Croat wildcard Borna Gojo next.

The Greek beat Austrian wildcard Dominic Thiem (7-6 (5), 6-4) in the previous round of the Vienna tournament, while Machac, ranked No 74, won against Australian Aleksandar Vukic (6-3, 6-1).

Vienna ATP500, other second-round results (Wiener Stadthalle, EUR 2.409.835, most recent results first):

• Frances Tiafoe vs. Gael Monfils
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Jannik Sinner
• Daniil Medvedev (1) beat Grigor Dimitrov: 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Borna Gojo beat Tommy Paul (6): 6-3, 6-4
• Andrey Rublev (3) beat Matteo Arnaldi: 7-5, 6-3
• Alexander Zverev (5) beat Cameron Norrie: 6-2, 6-4
• Karen Khachanov (8) beat Jiri Lehecka: 6-3, 6-1