TennisSection previews the 2022 Rotterdam Open as Stefanos Tsitsipas takes on Ilya Ivashka in the second round on Thursday, February 10th, 2022.
It wasn’t pretty, but Stefanos Tsitsipas got the job done in his first-round match. Now a much bigger task waits in the second round against the big-hitting Belarusian Ilya Ivashka. Who will come out on top in this match at the Rotterdam Open?
Stefanos Tsitsipas survived a huge scare on Tuesday night. The top seed was far from his free-flowing best and nearly paid a price for it. In a match with huge momentum shifts, it was the Greek who held his nerve to win a tough opener against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-5 6-7 6-4 in two and half hours. Davidovich Fokina was winning most of the baseline duels forcing Tsitsipas to overhit or misfire. After garnering a break to lead the first set 5-4, the Spaniard couldn’t serve out the opener. And Tsitsipas reeled off three successive games to steal the set. In the second set, Davidovich Fokina sustained a leg injury which would require a couple of medical timeouts, but that did not mean his level dropped one bit. He fought back from a losing deficit and forced a tiebreaker which he would dominate from start to finish. But it appeared the Spaniard’s movement became increasingly limited as Tsitsipas ran him ragged in the final few games of the decider to book his spot in the Round of 16 of the Rotterdam Open.
Ilya Ivashka got his first win of the season under his belt after defeating Lloyd Harris 6-2 6-3. As the scoreline suggests, it was plain sailing for the Belarusian No. 1. Bar one service game which he dropped in the match, Ivashka barely looked in trouble and had the perfect antidote to Harris’ big-serving. The high bounce on these courts meant that most of the balls landed perfectly in Ivashka’s strike zone. Also, Harris was playing his first match since the Australian Open, so he looked short on match practice.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Ilya Ivashka are yet to play each other on the ATP Tour. Thursday’s second-round match will be their first official meeting at tour-level. Tsitsipas goes into the match as the overwhelming favorite, owing to his high-ranking status and his superior hard court pedigree. But you cannot discount a big-hitter on this surface and certainly one who is a perennial danger in these early rounds. But assuming Tsitsipas has shaken off those cobwebs that seemed to engulf him in his match against Davidovich Fokina, he should be able to navigate his way into the last eight.
Free Tennis Pick and Prediction: Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets.
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