Tsitsipas puts on clay clinic to reach 4th straight Rome QF

Stefanos Tsitsipas continued his domination of Alex de Minaur with a 6-1, 6-2 win on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. The Greek raced through a 23-minute opening set and never looked back in a supreme display of clay-court tennis that mixed patience with power at all the right moments.

"I tried to do the best that I could out there on the court by bringing the best quality on my strokes, and I delivered," Tsitsipas said post-match. "Throughout the entire match I was pretty consistent with my serves and the ball placement. I was able to construct those points patiently and then wait for those shorter balls to come up.

"I really felt that my opponent felt the heaviness and the depth of my ball. It gave me courage, it gave me great belief in myself that I can continue pushing in that sense. I knew that I had something good working for me today."

One-handed backhand beauty 😍

Poetry in motion from @steftsitsipas ✨@InteBNLdItalia | #IBI24 pic.twitter.com/GuVaMBFGCq

— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 14, 2024

Tsitsipas saw his perfect 10-0 Lexus ATP Head2Head record against De Minaur spoiled when the Aussie won their last meeting in Acapulco, but the sixth seed reasserted himself in Rome with one of his best performances of the year. Now 13-2 on clay this season, the Monte-Carlo champion and Barcelona finalist is into his 23rd ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final and his fourth straight in Rome. The Greek continues his impressive turnaround after an 11-6 start to the 2024 season on hard courts, a relative slump that saw him briefly drop out of the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings.

Hitting with supreme confidence off both baseline wings, the Greek surrendered serve for the only time at 4-1 in the second set, but broke back immediately to extinguish any hope of a De Minaur comeback. Tsitsipas won 56 per cent of his return points (23/41) and converted on five of eight break points, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

Solid 🥊🎾@steftsitsipas with a great #PerformanceRating to advance into the 1/4 Finals 🔥#PerformanceRating combines #InAttack, #ConversionScore, #StealScore, and #ShotQuality to measure a player's performance over the course of a match#TennisInsights | @atptour |… pic.twitter.com/jCQZVX36gN

— Tennis Insights (@tennis_insights) May 14, 2024

Tsitsipas' 12 clay-court quarter-finals at the ATP Masters 1000 level are tied for sixth-most all-time, level with Andy Murray, Carlos Moya and Albert Costa. Five of those quarter-finals have come in Rome, where Tsitsipas reached the 2022 final and 2023 semis. He also reached the semis at the event in 2019, one year after qualifying for his tournament debut.

Most Clay ATP Masters 1000 QFs

De Minaur was bidding for his second clay win against a Top 10 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, with his lone previous win coming against Cameron Norrie in Barcelona in 2022. The Aussie has had more success against the Top 10 on other surfaces, with his four victories against those elite players this season second only to Jannik Sinner (5).

Tsitsipas will next meet 21st seed Nicolas Jarry on Thursday after the Chilean's 7-5, 6-3 win against Alexandre Muller earlier on Tuesday.