The Greek did not save himself against the 134th player in the world on Thursday, dropping a set in the process (6-3, 7-6 [10-8]6-7 [3-7]7-6 [9-7]), in the second round.
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He still does not fly over the debates, but his road continues at Roland-Garros. Stefanos Tsitsipas emerged victorious in his second round against Zdenek Kolar, a Czech from qualifying, not without a fight, Thursday, May 26. It is only after 4h06 of play and four very tight sets (6-3, 7-6 [10-8]6-7 [3-7]7-6 [9-7]) that the Greek was finally able to validate his qualification for the next round, where he will find the Swede Mikael Ymer, 95th player in the ATP ranking.
His lively celebration at the end of the match, taking his head in his hands and swinging his racket in rage, above all crystallized the difficulty he had in getting rid of a player from qualifying, ranked 130 places behind him in the global hierarchy. Like the tie-break of the second set, won 11 points to 9, after erasing three set points, a kind of warning not taken seriously enough by the Greek.
The next decisive game fell into the hands of the Czech, rewarded for believing in every point. Zdenek Kolar remained firmly attached to his face-off, only yielding it three times throughout the match (nine break points discarded). And it was only after a third tie-break that he finally gave in (7-9), after leading (6-2).
Stefanos Tsitsipas needed to reassure himself and not spend too much time on the court, after having faltered against Lorenzo Musetti for his entry into the running (5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6- 2), but the outgoing finalist still lost strength in the battle. He already has 7h40 of play in the first two rounds, more than all the other qualified in the third round, and he still has a lot of steps to climb to hope to wash away the disappointment of the final lost against Novak Djokovic last year.