One of the biggest challenges of Alex de Minaur’s career to date has been to find a way to beat the two-time grand slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. On Thursday, de Minaur beat Tsitsipas for the first time in 11 meetings with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win in the quarterfinals in the 2024 Mexican Open in Acapulco.
It was a slow start for de Minaur, as he lost six of seven games in the first set. The major reason for de Minaur’s success came down to double faults. Tsitsipas had eight double faults, while de Minaur only had one double fault.
There were a lot of break point opportunities in the match. In fact, there were 19 in all. De Minaur broke Tsitsipas six of 12 chances and Tsitsipas broke de Minaur in five of seven chances.
The 10 Tsitsipas wins over de Minaur came in a period of five years from 2018 to 2023. Of the 10 wins for Tsitsipas, two came in Barcelona, and one in Tokyo, the Next Gen ATP Finals, the ATP Cup, the Paris Indoor, Indian Wells, Rotterdam, Miami, and Los Cabos. The tournament in Los Cabos came in 2023 and was an ATP Final, as Tsitsipas won 6-3, 6-4.
In the semifinals in Mexico on Friday, de Minaur, the third seed, will face Jack Draper of Great Britain, and Holger Rune of Denmark, the second seed, will face Casper Ruud of Norway. Draper is facing de Minaur for the third time. De Minaur has beaten Draper twice before. De Minaur won in the second round of Wimbledon in 2022, 5-7, 7-6, 6-2, 6-3, and the first round of the 2023 Japan Open, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6.
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