Wimbledon 2023: Stefanos Tsitsipas battles past two former champions to match record

The Greek made it to the final of Australian Open earlier this year.

Stefanos Tsitsipas achieved a new feat at the Wimbledon this year. The Greek became the second tennis player to defeat two former champions - Dominic Thiem and Andy Murray, in the first and second rounds respectively at Wimbledon 2023. Dick Norman had achieved the same feat 28 years back by defeating Pat Cash and Stefen Edberg.

The current world number five had to go through ten gruelling sets to earn this distinction. Stefanos Tsitsipas was put to work by Thiem, who got the better of his Greek opponent by claiming the first set. The Greek then fought back to take the second and the third sets respectively.

Thiem, 29, fought back to take the penultimate set and took the match to the decider. The final set went to a tiebreaker for the third time in the match finishing (10-8) in favour of Stefanos Tsitsipas. The scoreline stood (3-6,7-6,6-2, 6-7,7-6) that stretched over four hours and on the onset took a total of two days for the match to finish.

Stefanos next game was against former world number one Andy Murray. This match too extended upto five sets and had three tie breaker rounds involved to declare the winner. Moreover, it also went past the four hour mark. Ultimately it was the Greek who triumphed (7-6,6-7,4-6, 7-6, 6-4).

The Greek will face now face unseeded Serbian Laslo Djere for a place in the pre-quarterfinals. However it remains to be seen how much toll the last two games will have taken on his body. Will Stefanos be able to deal with the fatigue and show his brilliance yet again ? Or will there be an upset.

Even then there's one thing for certain that the match wouldn't be short of fireworks. The 24-year-old wouldn't want to lose out on his momentum and will hope to make his best performance this year.