Stefanos Tsitsipas meets Karen Khachanov in the third round of the 2021 Rogers Cup on Thursday, August 12th 2021. Who will make their way to the quarter finals?
We are going to have probably the match of the day here between these two young and amazing hitting opponents from the back of the court. Will it be the Silver medallist at Tokyo to come through here, or will it be the flamboyant and higher ranked Stefanos Tsitispas to come through?
Karen Khachanov showed us that he is not to be underestimated in the second round, beating his fellow friend and fellow Russian in 2 sets 7-6/6-4. Karen is making statements over the last month because the majority of the tennis world had counted him out of returning back to his peak, but he is showing us that he can definitely play at that level again. Karen will know that he can make an even bigger statement if he can beat Stefanos Tsitsipas, but this will be his biggest challenge he has had in the last 3 weeks.
Stefanos Tsitispas had to fight through an extremely tight match against the very in form and confident-against-Tsitsipas player, Ugo Humbert, in 3 sets 6-3/6-7/6-1. Tsitsipas should have won that match in 2 sets as he had 5 match points in the tiebreak. However, Humbert saved all of those points and he was able to steal the set. The most impressive part of this match was Tsitsipas’ ability to maintain his composure after that second set and give it his all as he finally got his first win over his rival who he had never beaten in Ugo Humbert.
This is going to be the 4th meeting between both players, with Tsitsipas never having lost to Karen Khachanov. I expect a tight match here because their last encounter was a 3 setter and Khachanov was not as good as he is now back then. Both of them can win a set here, but I think that if Tsitsipas comes out like he played in the third set against Humbert, no one can stop him here at the Toronto Open. I see the Greek putting on a solid performance as he makes his way to the quarter finals in Toronto.