Madrid, May 2 () After edging Dominic Thiem in a third-set tie-break to open his Mutua Madrid Open campaign, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece again owned the clutch moments with a win against Sebastian Baez and advanced to the last 16 at the Madrid Open.
In a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory, Tsitsipas improved to 8-2 on clay this season as he continues his bid to return to the semifinals at the ATP Masters 1000 event for the third time.
Tsitsipas will next face home favourite Bernabe Zapata Miralles, who continued his dream run at the Caja Magica with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory against qualifier Roman Safiullin.
If the Greek can win his third ATP Masters 1000 title this week, he could rise as high No. 3 in the ATP Rankings and move within 1,000 points of World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
A trophy would be his first of the season following defeats in the final at the Australian Open and last week in Barcelona.
In other major action, Taylor Fritz, chasing his maiden ATP Tour title on clay demonstrated his recent improvement on the surface Monday with a scintillating 6-1 7-6(4) third-round triumph against Cristian Garin.
With a win the American has now reached at least the quarter-finals in all eight ATP Tour events he has played in 2023.
The Monte-Carlo semifinalist Fritz will take on Chinese Zhang Zhizhen as he chases his second ATP Masters 1000 title.
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