Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was made to work hard for more than three hours to book his spot in the French Open second round with a 7-5 6-3 4-6 7-6(7) win over Czech Jiri Vesely on Sunday.
The Greek, runner-up in Paris in 2021, did not expect the kind of resistance offered by a player ranked 445th in the world following a lengthy injury absence, and had to save four set points in the fourth to avoid a decider.
"Today's win is a very important for me," said Tsitsipas, who has not enjoyed his best clay court season. "I felt at times I was not going to the ball, I was staying still. When I took charge that was the moment I made that switch and won the match." But he broke the 29-year-old twice in a row to clinch the next four games and close out the first set.
The world number five, chasing his Grand Slam title, thought he had hit his stride, comfortably holding serve in the third but Vesely, who has played in only two Challengers since returning last month, doggedly refused to budge.
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