Stefanos Tsitsipas’ clash against Fabian Marozsan was brought to an abrupt halt as bad light stopped play at the Munich Open. The Greek ace, who has slipped to 67th in the world rankings, was locked in a tense battle with his Hungarian opponent at the ATP 500 event.
Tsitsipas took the opening set courtesy of two break points, but wasn’t able to wrap the game up in two. Instead, Marozsan battled hard and forced a tiebreak against Tsitsipas, which he won to extend the match into a third set.
The decider was level at 2-2 when the decision was made to suspend the Tuesday evening match because of low light in the arena. It was a welcome decision as far as Tsitsipas was concerned, given he’d previously informed the umpire of his concerns about the light conditions.
The two will return to the court to complete their round-of-32 match on Wednesday. It’s the last of the opening round matches that needs completing, with the winner set to face Denis Shapovalov in the last-16.
Tsitsipas will be hoping to use the current clay swing as a springboard to rebuilding his career following a dismal run of form. Largely influenced by fitness problems and injuries, Tsitsipas has tumbled down the rankings, but spoke of his optimism surrounding a return to form.
He said recently: “I am not frustrated anymore, because there is no pain to interrupt my training regime day to day.
“I wouldn’t say that there is something that bothers me right now, so I am actually at a perfect place to build on developing a better game to try and get myself back to where I belong. So far nothing has been bothering me, I am on a straight line trying to get things done and maybe get back on some winning streaks I am hoping.”
Before adding: “I am aware that I might need to play good players in earlier rounds at different tournaments this year. It’s not an easy thing to get to play them early, but I also accept the challenge and I accept my current position and state, that these kind of things need to happen in order for me to get back to where I belong.”