Stefanos Tsitsipas‘ younger brother Petros Tsitsipas was the star of the tie. The younger Tsitsipas partnered with Markos Kalovelonis to win the doubles rubber and pull one back for Greece in the tie. Petros Tsitsipas then went on to win the deciding singles’ rubber 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to complete a thrilling comeback for the Greeks and seal a 3-2 victory.
Greece and Jamaica faced each other for this Davis Cup World Group 2 play-off tie in Athens. Jamaica, the away team took a surprising 2-0 lead by winning both the singles rubbers on the first day. Greece then mounted a strong come-back in the doubles and reverse singles rubbers. In the doubles match, Petros Tsitsipas and Markos Kalovelonis defeated Jamaica’s Blaise Bicknell and Roland Phillips 6-2, 6-3 in 1 hour and 14 minutes.
The home team thenleveledd the tie 2-2 thanks to Aristotelis Thanos who beat Bicknell 6-4, 6-4 in a match that lasted close to two hours.
The tie then completely depended on the result of the deciding rubber between Petros Tsitsipas and Roland Phillips. Stefanos’ ‘little bro’ pulled off a thrilling victory in a match which lasted 2 hours 42 minutes to win the tie for Greece. This result means Jamaica is now relegated to America’s Zone 3.
Greece’s leading singles player Stefanos Tsitsipas wasn’t part of the squad for the tie. The World No. 5 skipped the Davis Cup tie after a hectic start to the season. Tsitsipas played at the Mexican Open last week winning the Doubles title with Feliciano Lopez but lost the singles match against Cameron Norrie in the semi-finals. Tsitsipas has played four tournaments since the start of the year – the Australian Open, ATP Rotterdam, Open 13, and the Mexican Open.
Greece fielded a relatively weaker lineup for the tie in the absence of Stefanos Tsitsipas. The star of the tie Petros Tsitsipas is ranked 807 in the world in singles and 209 in Doubles. The 21-year old has never made it to a Grand Slam singles main round draw. Team Hellas would be delighted with how things eventually turned out under the given circumstances. The win in this tie keeps Greece in World Group 2 of the Davis Cup.
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