{"id":24056,"date":"2026-10-21T23:05:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T23:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/21\/tsitsipas-beats-kovacevic-to-advance-at-almaty-open-greek-city-times\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T23:05:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T23:05:46","slug":"tsitsipas-beats-kovacevic-to-advance-at-almaty-open-greek-city-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/21\/tsitsipas-beats-kovacevic-to-advance-at-almaty-open-greek-city-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Tsitsipas Beats Kovacevic to Advance at Almaty Open \u2013 Greek City Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-first=\"S\">\n<h3 id=\"h-stefanos-tsitsipas-survived-a-stern-opening-test-at-the-almaty-open-defeating-american-aleksandar-kovacevic-in-three-sets-to-advance-to-the-second-round-of-the-atp-250-tournament-in-kazakhstan\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stefanos Tsitsipas survived a stern opening test at the Almaty Open, defeating American Aleksandar Kovacevic in three sets to advance to the second round of the ATP 250 tournament in Kazakhstan.<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Greek seventh seed secured a 7-6(9), 3-6, 6-3 victory at Almaty Arena on Tuesday, October 20, after two hours and one minute on court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ranked world No. 39, Tsitsipas faced a difficult challenge against Kovacevic, who entered the match ranked No. 82 and delivered a powerful serving performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 28-year-old Greek fired seven aces, committed two double faults and won 83 per cent of points behind his first serve. Kovacevic recorded 13 aces and three double faults but could not maintain his challenge in the deciding set.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gct-readmore\">Read more: Tsitsipas Saves Three Set Points to Win Almaty Open Thriller<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-tsitsipas-credits-persistence-for-victory\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tsitsipas Credits Persistence for Victory<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tsitsipas acknowledged the difficulty of facing an opponent who served so effectively throughout the contest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy persistence,\u201d Tsitsipas said when asked what made the difference in his victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI was trying to stay in the match and just be patient. He was serving exceptionally well today, it was really frustrating being on the other side of the court having to return. It wasn\u2019t an easy match.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Greek also praised Kovacevic\u2019s recent development, describing him as a consistent player whose game had improved significantly in recent months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cVery unlikely to be playing each other first round, but I really wish him the best. He\u2019s a great player and I\u2019m a big fan of his game,\u201d Tsitsipas said.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-home-favourite-awaits-in-second-round\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Home Favourite Awaits in Second Round<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tsitsipas will next face Kazakhstan\u2019s Mikhail Kukushkin, who advanced after defeating Greek player <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stefanos.sakellaridis\/?hl=en\">Stefanos Sakellaridis <\/a>7-6(4), 7-6(3) in another closely contested first-round encounter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 38-year-old Kukushkin will have home support behind him as he attempts to stop the former world No. 3 from progressing further in Almaty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tsitsipas is making his second appearance at the tournament, having reached the final in 2022 when the event was held in Astana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Greek star has won 13 ATP Tour singles titles during his career, including three ATP Masters 1000 crowns at Monte Carlo, and has reached two Grand Slam finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His victory over Kovacevic gives him an opportunity to build momentum as he pursues another deep run on the ATP Tour.<\/p>\n<p><!--[googlesitekit-end-of-content]--><\/p>\n<aside class=\"gct-related\">\n<h2>Related coverage<\/h2>\n<\/aside>\n<footer class=\"article-tags entry-footer\">\n<\/footer>\n<div class=\"category_container author-information\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<section id=\"authorpage\" class=\"authorpage\">\n\t\t\t\t<img alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99ca06517608e7af44e9761bf7c358974ffbc4a43859fd8e5be6fc2f50d341af?s=164&amp;r=g\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/99ca06517608e7af44e9761bf7c358974ffbc4a43859fd8e5be6fc2f50d341af?s=328&amp;r=g 2x\" class=\"avatar avatar-164 photo lazyload\" height=\"164\" width=\"164\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"author-content\">\n<h5>Bill Giannopoulos<\/h5>\n<h4>Junior Editor<\/h4>\n<p>Bill Giannopoulos is a Junior Editor at Greek City Times, covering Greek and international news, sport, and history.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.gr\" class=\"boxed-icon fill\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fa-solid fa-link\"\/><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/2026\/10\/22\/tsitsipas-almaty-open-kovacevic-win\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stefanos Tsitsipas survived a stern opening test at the Almaty Open, defeating American Aleksandar Kovacevic in three sets to advance to the second round of the ATP 250 tournament in Kazakhstan. The Greek seventh seed secured a 7-6(9), 3-6, 6-3 victory at Almaty Arena on Tuesday, October 20, after two hours and one minute on &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Tsitsipas Beats Kovacevic to Advance at Almaty Open \u2013 Greek City Times\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/21\/tsitsipas-beats-kovacevic-to-advance-at-almaty-open-greek-city-times\/#more-24056\" aria-label=\"Read more about Tsitsipas Beats Kovacevic to Advance at Almaty Open \u2013 Greek City Times\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HVFOkOuWgAAKJ3W_upscale.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}