Tsitsipas and Rublev advance to their first quarter-final at French Open

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev advanced to the last eight at the French Open for the first time on Monday with hard fought wins over Grigor Dimitrov and Marton Fucsovics respectively.

Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the quarter-finals at the French Open for the first time where he will play another last eight debutant Andrey Rublev. AFP

Stefanos Tsitsipas, the fifth seed, made only four direct faults during an opening set won 6-3 after 42 minutes under the roof on Court Philippe Chatrier.

But the 22-year-old was less steady in the second which went to a tiebreak. In an extraordinary 15-minute shoot-out, both men squandered three set points before Tsitsipas claimed it 11-9 to take command of the match.

"It was very tense," Tsitsipas said of the tiebreak. "But I played good tennis and I took it point by point. I showed lots of discipline and responsibility so I'm happy with the attitude."

Surge

Tsitspas broke the Bulgarian early in the third set and had two points for a 4-0 lead and another point for a 5-1 advantage but Grigor Dimitrov rediscovered his renowned brio to fight them off to stay within sight of his adversary.

But his resolve, clearly waning after the second set, crumbled. Tsitsipas won the third set 6-2 to end the contest after two and a half hours and become the first Greek player to reach the last eight at the French Open.

Achilles. Odysseus. Tsitsipas. Add this legend to the 🇬🇷 epics ✍️@StefTsitsipas becomes the first Greek player to reach the quarter-finals in Paris eliminating Dimitrov 6-3 7-6(9) 6-2.#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/7kFpC3R1YM

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) October 5, 2020

The latter-day hero will play Andrey Rublev on Wednesday for a place in Friday's semi-final. The pair met in the final of the Hamburg Open just before the French Open.

Rublev won that encounter in three sets and the 22-year-old Russian appeared on the verge of needing five sets for victory on Court Suzanne Lenglen when Marton Fucsovics, having pocketed the opening set 7-6, served at 5-3 up in the second set.

But Rublev won four games on the trot to take it 7-5 and he took the next two sets 6-4, 7-6 to wrap up the victory in three hours and 54 minutes.