Race walker Antigoni Drisbioti and tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas fought hard in their respective Olympic competitions on Thursday, but were unable to secure progression to the next stage in Paris.
Antigoni Drisbioti
With the Greek flag in her hands, Drisbioti finished her race at the Olympic Games. She placed 22nd, finishing the 20km walk in 1 hour 31 minutes, marking her best performance of the year.
She told Greek media afterwards that the Paris Olympics would probably be her last, after competing at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and at Tokyo in 2021.
“Starting from scratch, I have now reached, as a full-grown woman and athlete, the point where I have all of you with me,” she said after her race. “What more could I possibly ask for? I began alone, and now I have all of Greece with me.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas
The dream of the 2024 Olympic Games was extinguished for Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday night, following a 2-0 set loss (6-3, 7-6) to Novak Djokovic at Philippe Chatrier, in a very intense match, which lasted 2 hours and 3 minutes.
The Serbian tennis player beat the Greek champion for the 12th time in 14 meetings and advanced to the semi-finals, where he will face Italian Lorenzo Muzzetti, who earlier won 2-0 sets (7-5, 7-5) against Alexander Zverev.
World No. 2 Djokovic took the first set 6-3 in 44 minutes, holding his own serve and breaking Tsitsipas in the 4th game on his one and only chance. At the same time, the Greek tennis player committed 11 unforced errors in this first set.
Tsitsipas dramatically improved his performance in the second set and, making two breaks, found himself leading 4-0. Djokovic – after the discomfort he had in his right knee – managed to reduce it to 4-2, before leveling at 5-5.
The two tennis players finally settled their differences in the tie-break, where Djokovic had more solutions and more composure to finish the job.
