The continued struggles of Tsitsipas

His first match back with his dad was anything but a success...

Tsitsipas lost the battle of the one-handed backhands against O'Connell in Toronto... as usual, his returning and BH errors were his downfall! Marozsan has already played his first match here in Cincinnati, a challenging three-set win against an inspired Colton Smith. Marozsan was his usual self... alternating between big winners from either wing and streaks of unforced errors. I still found his match quite good, there was a lot of energy in the match, with a lot of good court coverage from Smith and some fast-paced rallies!

For this match, it worries me that Tsitsipas struggled so much against O'Connell... Marozsan has the pace and aggression to rush Tsitsipas' BH even more! I also want to bring up the following quote regarding Tsitsipas in Cincinnati:

"Stefanos looked unhappy, threw his racquet in anger twice in the 20 minutes we were here, and cut the 2-hour practice about 45 minutes short, and then this confab has been going on for a while."

For some players, events like this could be a good thing, something that awakens something within them and inspires them to play with a bit of attitude. As for Tsitsipas, I'm not sure this is the case... When he is down, he has a hard time getting back up. We do have to keep in mind his good run in Dubai, where he beat many top players out of nowhere. Playing in faster conditions is not entirely negative for him... with his lack of confidence, being able to have faster points with his Serve and FH can be a good thing. Of course, the big issue remains his return and his BH wing getting exposed even harder. I don't think Marozsan minds this kind of matchup; he has a weakness he can exploit, an opponent who will have a hard time rushing him, and also lacks rally tolerance to extract errors from him. Marozsan is also a good returner, so he can get some looks at Tsitsipas' serve. If Tsitsipas is able to somehow find some answers for his backhand, of course, he is the better player! However, the issue is that his struggles have been ongoing for so long, and the reports from practice are not encouraging... Marozsan is also not phased by this kind of matchup against "big players", don't forget this is the man who took down Alcaraz in Rome...