Bad day on the clay can’t slow Tsitsipas

Stefanos Tsitsipas scratched and clawed his way past Sebastian Korda 7-6 (4), 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals at the ATP Barcelona Open for a fifth straight year on Wednesday.

But the Greek, a four-time finalist at the Real Club, was far from pleased with what he considered a sloppy showing.

“This is not a performance I;d be proud of. The only good thing was my fighting.

“My tennis was really not showing but I was still able to fight and that gave me the win at the end.”

The two-time Grand Slam finalist whose ranking has dropped to 16 after he failed to defend his Monte Carlo title last week, advanced into a last-eight match with Frenchman Arthur Fils, who has won both of their previous encounters.

Tsitsipas advanced with 15 winners and twice as many unforced errors on the Rafael Nadal court in the Catalan capital.

“It was not great in terms of level, II was surprised not to be even close in the return games. 

“I did hold serve quite OK. It’s too early to say anything about my clay game. But winning definitely helps [psychologically.

“The more I can fight through matches like this; I need confidence to progress and get better over the next few weeks (leading to Roland Garros in a month).”