Stefanos Tsitsipas puts his name next to Daniil Medvedev in the list of winners of the Mallorca Championships. The Greek tennis player defeated Roberto Bautista in an evenly matched final that was resolved, after two and a half hours, in the tie-break of the third set (6- 4, 3-6, 7-6[2]).
World No. 6 completed a great week at the Mallorca Country Club by winning his first ATP grass- court title. The Athenian, who started as the second seed, already has nine titles in his career and the one in Santa Ponça (Calvià) is the second of this year after winning it at the Masters 1000 in Montecarlo.
Tsitsipas started the match strongly, dominating the Spaniard 4-0. The No.20 was able to recover one of the two breaks conceded, but the Greek was able to take the first set (6-4). The momentum was maintained at the start of the second set with the break in favor of the Greek (3-1), but Bautista reacted by linking five games to equalize the balance (6-3).
The excitement was served on Centre Court when Tsitsipas again dominated 5-2 and served in the ninth game to close the match, but a new comeback of Bautista took the match to the tiebreaker. Then the second-seeded winner sealed his 40th victory of 2022, leading the ATP ranking of victories on the ATP circuit, with a 7-2 win in the tiebreaker.
Tsitsipas quotes
About his first title on grass: “It has been a very important and a really wanted win on grass. I won tournaments on clay and hardcourts previously. Today was probably the most important day of the year for me to be able to get a title that I really wanted”.
40th season victory: “It is the half of the season, so far, and the year has not been completed yet. I just keep up to the base and I really hope for a great finish by being on the leaderboard of wins”.
About Mallorca Championships entry list: “I think this is a very strong event with big names signed here. I am happy to be the next of Daniil Medvedev as a champion. I was playing good enough and that is the most important. And second of all I enjoyed my time out of court more than usual and for that everything goes in the right way”.
His own experience in Mallorca: “I think that I pushed a new tradition here as in Barcelona [jumping into the pool]. I see Mallorca being a stable tournament on the ATP calendar and I really hope to bring this tournament back every single year. The location is insane. I mean you do not get places like this very often on the tour. It is the best place to be right before Wimbledon. There is no better”.