Stefanos Tsitsipas is celebrating his 23rd birthday with a spot in the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open on Thursday.
The Greek star defeated Tokyo Olympics singles silver medalist Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-2 to reach the last eight in Toronto for the second time.
The crowd at the Aviva Centre sang “Happy Birthday” to the winner after he completed the match, and tournament officials presented the 2018 finalist with a cake.
The 2019 Nitto ATP Finals champion will next play red-hot Norwegian Casper Ruud, who eliminated Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-3.
“Casper is a player that has been developing very good recently. He had an amazing clay-court season,” Tsitsipas said.
“He’s someone that serves very well, has a very good serve-and-first-ball pattern that works really well for him. I think he’s probably one of the best players out there to have the serve and first ball inside the three first shots that he hits.
“It’s definitely something that I’m going to have to pay attention to, and apply more pressure towards that.”
Source: ATP Tour
