KEEPING his recent hot form rolling, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas took another step forward in overcoming his slow start to the year with a second win over former Top 10 talent Matteo Berrettini in as many weeks. Defeating him in a tough three-setter at Dubai last week en route to the ATP500 title, the eighth seed booked his place in the Round of 16 with a comfortable 6-3 6-3 triumph over Berrettini today.

The complete turnaround after starting his year at 2-3 from ATP Tour events, Tsitsipas has now strung seven wins together between Dubai and California, not dropping a set since his last match with Berrettini in the quarter finals more than a week ago.

Extending his head-to-head lead over Berrettini to 5-1, the Greek only hit seven winners in a statistically-low match for winners, which was three less than Berrettini, but also hit just five unforced errors to the Italian’s 16. His first serve win percentage of 87 was outstanding, only dropping six points in total off his serve, and not even facing a break point.

By comparison, Berrettini’s serve had the yips, winning just 51 per cent of his first serve points – and excluding six aces that dropped to 35.9 per cent – as well as just 25 per cent off his second serve. The result was a dominant one for Tsitsipas on return, who always looked in control.

“I have to focus on my serve, that’s the priority,” Tsitsipas said post-match. “I’m thinking of how I am going to hold serve, how I’m going to press the opponent. There’s an added bonus of holding easier, you have more time to focus on the return.”

Incredibly after looking set to drop outside the Top 10 following his poor early season form, Tsitsipas will move up to seventh in the world to leapfrog Andrey Rublev, and can re-enter the Top 5 if he can reach the Indian Wells final at the end of the week. It would mark the first time since September 2023 he had featured that high.

Next up is 12th seed Holger Rune who fought past Frenchman Ugo Humbert in three sets 5-7 6-4 7-5, to advanced through to the Round of 16. Also into the fourth round were seeds Daniil Medvedev and Tommy Paul, while local hope Marcos Giron quelled Aussie Alexei Popyrin, and Tallon Griekspoor survived serve bot Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.