Desperately hunting for a title, Stefanos Tsitsipas held against a determined Alex de Minaur to lift his trophy of the season at the ATP 250 in Los Cabos. Securing his 10th career crown and successfully extending his head to-head against the Aussie to 10-0, the Greek’s 6-3, 6-4 victory on the Mexican Pacific was an outcome of discipline and strength.
The top-seed Greek at Los Cabos broke the #18 ranked Australian 4/9 times to seal a clinical 86-minute encounter. Tsitsipas had his chances at 3-2 and 0/40 to secure a double-break in second set but this time the 5th seed fought back to deny him the smooth sailing only to hand him another at 5-4 as he allowed the 24-year old Athens native to clinch his 39th win and maiden title of the 2023 season.
“I feel like both of us wanted to go out on the court today and show a great final,” said Tsitsipas in his on-court interview. “I feel like it was a great match. Alex showed great tennis, I tried to keep up with the level as much as I could. I’m really happy we were able to deliver a great final today. I think that is the thing that stands out the most. It was a great match and the crowd, as always, was fully present and engaged.”
Participating in the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo for the first time this week, Tsitsipas dropped just one set (against Nicolas Jarry in quarters) en route to the ATP 250 title. He would then drop only 7 games in his 3 wins against Isner, Coric and De Minaur to cement his maiden outdoor hardcourt title. It was also his first hardcourt title since winning Marseille indoors three years back in France.
“I will take the positives out of this week,” said Tsitsipas in his post-match press conference. “I had a few good matches here and I think it’s a good start to the [American hard-court] swing. We’ve experienced a lot of good tennis this week from a lot of good players. The competition was high, and I’m happy to walk away with the trophy.”
Thanks to the triumphant run at Los Cabos, Tsitsipas will take over Casper Ruud as world No. 4 on Monday.
As for De Minaur, It looks that the Greek has the Aussie’s number as the latter has only managed to steal just one set in his last 8 meetings from the new Los Cabos Champion.