Halle Open: Stefanos Tsitsipas earns hard-fought win, ousts Gregoire Barrere

Halle [Germany], June 20 : Stefanos Tsitsipas overcame a fierce challenge from Gregoire Barrere to kick-start his Halle Open 2023 campaign.

The second seed registered a 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-6(3) win over his French opponent in Halle.

At 6-7(6), 1-3, Tsitsipas was down a set and a break, but he wore down Barrere to win in two hours and twenty-two minutes. The Greek earned a second-round match against Nicolas Jarry at the grass-court ATP 500 by being the more reliable player in the second half of the match, particularly during the deciding set tie-break.

Tsitsipas' courageous comeback against the World No. 58 came after he lost to Richard Gasquet in's-Hertogenbosch last week to end his grass-court season. In the OWL Arena, the Greek used serve-and-volley strategies to forge his comeback, winning 76 percent (28/37) of the points when he approached the net.

"I just tried smiling. It kind of worked. At that point you think, 'I've been giving 100 per cent'. I was trying to think, 'What can I do better?' ATP.com quoted Tsitsipas talking about how he kept his cool when trailing in the second set.

"I wasn't too consistent with my returns. He had a few second serves where I tried to do much. I just thought I could have done much better in that department and psychologically I think it helped my opponent [settle]," Tsitsipas said.

"I feel so in my natural habitat when I'm in front of the net. Serve and volleying, I don't get to do that very often and I feel like grass allows me to do that a bit more... My serve proved to be a massive weapon today in regards of giving me that first volley I was looking for and making my life a bit easier at the net," the World No. 5 Tsitsipas said.

The Chilean Jarry defeated Corentin Moutet 6-3, 7-5 in his Halle debut earlier this year by successfully transferring his good clay-court form to grass. In order to complete a one-hour, 46-minute victory, Jarry, who won the match in Geneva, advanced to the fourth round at Roland Garros, and entered the match in Germany at a career-high No. 28 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, broke Moutet's service late in each set.