Stefanos Tsitsipas had a huge Wednesday, competing in both singles and doubles matches in the ATP Cup, but only managing to prevail in his battle against Australia’s Alex de Minaur.
The world no.6 came out with a straight set win of 6-3, 7-5.
Tsitsipas blazed through the first set with his hard hitting ground strokes and a notably superb backhand down the line bringing him to a strong 5-2 in the first set.
He also took advantage of de Minaur’s weak serves, but the Australian did show some fighting spirit shooting back when Tsitsipas seemed to be dominating the the second set rallies.
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Tsitsipas’ fellow doubles teammate Michail Pervolarakis was not so lucky in his solo performance against Australian John Millman.
The Aussie world no.28 won 6-2, 6-3 against the 24-year-old Cypriot born Greek.
Pervolarakis could not keep up as well this year, despite having met Millman at the same tournament last year and serving up some much harder game play.
Millman was able to make a double break in the first set, but was tested by the Greek who jeopardised his win at 3-5 but made it out on top.
The Australian managed to clutch another double break early in the second set, setting the premise for the rest of the game.
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The young Greek players then came back to compete in their doubles match against Australian team made up of Luke Saville and John Peers.
Unfortunately the Greek side was not able to defeat the Aussies, losing 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (10-5), giving Australia tie win of 2-1.
Despite the game running into the late hours of the evening, both teams put up a strong fight during the 87 minute long match.
Saville and Peers mustered up 16 winning strikes in the first 29 minutes, breaking Pervolarakis’ serve twice, however Greece clinched onto the second set after two double faults made by Peers.
The final set saw the Australian rookie team take home the win during a grueling match-deciding tiebreak.
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Up to 600 players and officials had been told to isolate and get tested after a 26-year-old Grand Hyatt hotel staff member tested positive for COVID earlier this week.
In the wake of the positive test, Thursday’s matches had been cancelled, however warm-up events are set to resume today after close contact tests returned negative results.
Tsitsipas is playing back to back games on Friday, starting off with his singles match against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, followed by his doubles match with Pervolarakis against Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Pablo Carreño Busta.
The remainder of the ATP tournaments have been condensed into three days to ensure all the matches are completed before the Australian Open starts on Monday.
The Grand Hyatt COVID case also delayed the major tournament’s draw, however players who were not staying at the hotel were able to continue training as normal.
This morning Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley told Melbourne radio station 3AW “so far everyone is negative” after Thursday’s news.
He noted that the majority of players had respected the organisation’s decision and went to get tested.
Mr Tiley ensured spectators would still be allowed to attend venues to watch matches today and across the weekend.