2 things that stood out in Nicolas Jarry's 2R win over Stefanos Tsitsipas in Halle
Nicolas Jarry of Chile stunned second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 7-6(7) 7-5 in the second round in Halle on Wednesday, June 21. The match lasted for almost two hours, as the 27-year-old Chilean prevailed in a competitive battle.
Tsitsiaps, meanwhile, continued his barren run. The loss will not do much good to his confidence ahead of Wimbledon, which gets underway on July 3.
Jarry will take on ninth seed Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals on Friday, June 23. Their head-to-head is tied at 2-2 at the moment but all their previous matches have taken place on clay.
On that note, here's a look at two things that stood out in the match:
#1 Jarry’s serve and forehand combination troubled the Greek
Jarry’s big serve and clinical forehand made his job easier throughout the match. On a number of occasions, the big Chilean hit a big serve to push Tsitsipas into an awkward position and then followed it up with a huge forehand.
The Greek, meanwhile, went around his backhand quite a few times to hit inside-out and inside-in forehands to take the attack to the Chilean. He also tried to dictate terms with his forehand.
It was an absorbing battle between the two in the first set, which went into a tie-break and saw both players saving a set point. Jarry eventually prevailed 9-7.
#2 Tsitsipas’ tendency to serve and volley backfired at times
Tsitsipas opted to serve and volley on a regular basis. Jarry countered this well and managed to pass the former on a number of occasions. Tsitspas, however, did win a fair number of points using the tactic.
The two players managed to hold serve for the first 10 games of the second set. Tsitsipas rushed the net a couple of times in the 11th game only for the Chilean to hit powerful passing shots that the Greek could not return.
Jarry thus got the crucial break of serve and followed it up by holding serve to nil. He is likely to face an equally formidable task against Zverev in the quarterfinals, with the German eager to win his first tournament since returning from injury.