, Oct 20 (IANS) Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas dug deep to continue his late-season surge as he surged past Aleksandar Kovacevic at the Almaty Open on Tuesday. The former No. 3 player in the ATP Rankings overcame Aleksandar Kovacevic 7-6(9), 3-6, 6-3 in an intriguing two-hour clash at the indoor ATP 250 event. Facing another player with a one-handed backhand for the first time since he lost to Kovacevic in August in Winston-Salem, Tsitsipas crucially saved three set points in the first-set tie-break en route to victory."My persistence," Tsitsipas said when asked about the key to his win. "I 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't an easy match. He's been serving like that even in our previous encounter."I feel like he's been very consistent and, in my opinion, he improved a lot in the past couple of months. Very unlikely to be playing each other in the first round, but I really wish him the best. He's a great player, and I'm a big fan of his game," he was quoted as saying by the ATP Tour. The 13-time ATP Tour champion Tsitsipas is now 35-22 for the season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, with 18 of those victories coming since the start of his Gstaad title run in mid-July. Next up for the Greek in Almaty will be a second-round meeting with home wild card Mikhail Kukushkin, who is playing the final event before retirement. Tsitsipas leads the 38-year-old Kukushkin 4-0 in the pair's ATP head-to-head series. Another former Top-10 player, Karen Khachanov, joined Tsitsipas in the second round with a more straightforward victory in Almaty. The fifth seed powered past Rei Sakamoto 6-2, 6-4 to set a meeting with Tomas Machac or wild card Zangar Nurlanuly. The 2024 champion Khachanov is one of three former titlists in the Almaty field, alongside defending champion Daniil Medvedev and 2023 winner Adrian Mannarino. Sho Shimabukuro will be the second-round opponent for top seed Medvedev after the Japanese World No. 109 rallied past Roman Safiullin 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match. Terence Atmane was also a first-round victor on Tuesday, when the Frenchman ousted Rinky Hijikata 7-6(5), 6-2. Atmane will next face sixth seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Mattia Bellucci. Fabian Marozsan will aim to win consecutive matches against home favourites to begin his Almaty campaign: The Hungarian defeated Timofey Skatov 7-5, 7-6(4) on Tuesday to set a second-round showdown with third seed Alexander Bublik.
