Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered a major upset in the second round on Wednesday at the US Open as he crashed out to Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker.
The seventh seed served for the match in the fourth set but went on to lose to qualifier Dominic Stricker. The world No 128 came through 7-5 6-7(2) 6-7(5) 7-6(6) 6-3 to earn the biggest victory of his young career.
Tsitsipas suffered another early exit at the US Open as Stricker picked up his first top 10 win. The 21-year-old Swiss player had come through qualifying to make his US Open main draw debut, beating world No 41 Alexei Popyrin in the first round.
Stricker took the first set against Tsitsipas in their second-round match before the two-time Grand Slam finalist came storming back, winning the next two sets. The 25-year-old served for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set but the qualifier held his nerve and managed to break at a crucial moment, forcing a tiebreak.
The seventh seed was two points from the victory at 5-4 in the breaker but Stricker stole it 8-6 and got the early break in the fifth and final set which proved crucial, serving out the biggest win of his career after four hours and four minutes.
Stricker will now face either Christopher Eubanks or Benjamin Bonzi on Friday. Tsitsipas is the latest seed to crash out in the bottom half of the draw following world No 4 Holger Rune. And it opens up Novak Djokovic’s path to the final with world No 5 Casper Ruud the highest seed left behind Djokovic in that section.
