Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his 9th quarter-final of the year in Stockholm after defeating a gritty John Millman in 3 sets.
The match
Ranked no.33, John Millman is the Aussie no.2 and he had recently hit the headlines after defeating Roger Federer in the 4th round of the US Open. Stefanos had a good start of the match after breaking his opponent the very first game before winning 6-4.
The Greek seemed to be poised to have an easy run in the second set after breaking John again in the first game at love (1-0), but this time things were quite different with Aussie breaking back in the following game (1-1) before breaking again Stefanos in the 6th game (4-2). That was enough for the Australian to win the second set 6-3.
There was not much difference between these two in the decider with the exception of the 8th game when John dropped his serve (5-3). Eventually, Stefanos held his nerves to win the match 6-4 3-6 6-3 after 2 hours and 2 minutes.
I played too defensive in the second set. TSITSIPAS
After the match, Stefanos commented
“I had a good start, got the break and thought it was a good start. I started playing defensively in the second set and got broken twice. It didn’t affect me losing the second set, but I got closer to his serve in the third set and broke at 4-3.”
Stefanos will face either Verdasco or Kohlschreiber in the quarters.
