Tsitsipas reaches Gstaad SFs, next faces Berrettini

Stefanos Tsitsipas extended his perfect Lexus ATP Head2Head record against Fabio Fognini to 5-0 on Friday at the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad, where the Greek cruised to a 6-4, 6-3 victory to reach the semi-finals.

The top seed stayed dialled in despite relinquishing an early break in both sets, quickly rebounding with aggressive baseline play to rush Fognini’s groundstrokes. Tsitsipas earned a decisive break at 5-4 in the opening set and raced to the finish line in the second, advancing after one hour, six minutes.

"My returns worked pretty well, I was very consistent with them. I kind of insisted the whole match to stay back and give it a bit of a loop, try and get the angles from the very beginning. It worked pretty well," said Tsitsipas, who won 74 per cent of his first-serve points, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

"I'm happy with how I started serving towards the end of the match. In the beginning, I was still trying to figure out how I'm going to open up the court and create opportunities on my serve. It took me a while to figure out. I kind of unlocked the code towards the end... I felt like I was doing everything correct."

An 11-time tour-level titlist, who is now 32-12 on the year, Tsitsipas is aiming for his second trophy of the season. The 25-year-old, who is competing in Gstaad for the first time, won his third Monte-Carlo title in April. Into the semi-finals, the World No. 12 in the PIF ATP Rankings looks to improve upon his 14-1 record against Italians on clay when he faces sixth seed Matteo Berrettini, whom Tsitsipas leads 3-0 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

Berrettini, 2018 champion in Gstaad, earned a hard-fought 7-6(7), 7-6(2) victory against third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime. Neither player dropped serve, but it was the 28-year-old Berrettini who held his nerve in the latter stages of both sets, converting his third set point of the opener to gain an advantage. The former World No. 6 jumped to a 5/0 lead in the second-set tie-break and closed the match after two hours, 10 minutes.

In the bottom half of the draw, fifth seed Jan-Lennard Struff advanced to his second tour-level semi-final of the season (Munich title) after overcoming fourth seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. The German next faces Quentin Halys, who ousted fellow qualifier Gustavo Heide 6-1, 7-5. Halys, 27, is into his second tour-level semi-final (2023 Estoril) after downing Heide with the help of a remarkable point-winning forehand from the floor midway through the opening set.