ATP Tour

Tsitsipas survives late wobble, sets Auger-Aliassime showdown in Cincinnati

Stefanos Tsitsipas overcame a late wobble at the Cincinnati Open on Friday, when he recovered from a two-match-point stumble to defeat Valentin Royer 7-6(4), 7-5 and book a second-round showdown with Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Back inside the Top 50 of the PIF ATP Rankings this week at No. 49, Tsitsipas has been steadily rediscovering his form in 2026. The Greek No. 1 captured his first title in 16 months last month in Gstaad and will now have another opportunity to measure his progress against second seed Auger-Aliassime at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

Tsitsipas appeared in control after taking the opening set and moving ahead 5-2 in the second against Royer. But the 28-year-old surrendered the advantage and missed two match points as Royer fought back to level at 5-5.

The 2022 Cincinnati finalist, however, steadied himself when it mattered most, eventually converting his sixth match point to complete the one-hour, 58-minute victory. It marks his seventh straight opening-round win in Cincinnati.

Tsitsipas leads Auger-Aliassime 7-3 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, having won their most recent meeting in the Dubai final last year. Auger-Aliassime, the No. 4 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, withdrew ahead of his first-round match in Montreal last week due to injury.

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Elsewhere in Ohio on Friday, Sebastian Baez and Matteo Berrettini also advanced. Baez rallied from a set down and overcame a break deficit in the deciding set to defeat former champion Grigor Dimitrov 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Berrettini also recovered from a slow start, overcoming qualifier Titouan Droguet 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Another former champion, Marin Cilic, was also unable to come through his opener on Friday. The former World No. 3 fell 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 to rising Spaniard Daniel Merida, who is fresh off reaching his first Masters 1000 quarter-final in Montreal last week.

Alex Michelsen set an all-American second-round meeting with sixth seed Taylor Fritz after the 21-year-old passed his first test against Jesper de Jong with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. Michelsen takes a 2-1 Lexus ATP Head2Head lead into his clash with Fritz, but the World No. 9 won their most recent clash in Washington just two weeks ago.

View all of Cincinnati’s results from Friday here.