(September 4, 2026) FLUSHING MEADOWS, NY – For the first time in his career odyssey, Stefanos Tsitsipas has reached a milestone he’s never had before – earning a spot in the second week of the US Open in nine appearances. The two-time major finalist and former No. 3 defeated 18th seed Jiri Lehecka from Czechia 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(3), 6-1 on Grandstand court on Friday night.
The former world No. 3 battled to four-set wins after dropping the first set in all three of his matches this tournament, including a first-round upset of 10th seed and Cincinnati champion Arthur Fils.
“Not the best of starts to a match this crucial,” confessed the man from Greece. “I was not very pleased with the way the match started and how far back I found myself early in the match.
“But I really had to, like, accept it, because, you know, a match can always evolute, a match can always kind of change and shift. The momentum has its waves, and it comes in waves.
“I was just waiting to see maybe something might change during that match. And he seemed like he was kind of on fire starting the match. Wasn’t giving too much rhythm to me.
“Eventually I felt like a few changes and tweaks that I made to my game seemed to allow me to prevail a little bit more and stay in the set. It was not so much about starting to win. It was more about staying in the set and not dropping my serve.
“Once I figured that out, you know, it was a battle of who’s going to break first. And I did an exceptional job in the second and in the fourth set.”
Tsitsipas is making his way back up in the rankings, as it’s far down from where it was when he was ranked in the top ten.
“Well, let’s first start from almost a whole year,” explained Tsitsipas. “Last year was missed because of my back. I wasn’t able to build too much momentum going into tournaments. If I started having some sort of momentum in tournaments, my back started hurting.
“So it was a very weird, wavy year in terms of not much consistency to what was going on throughout an entire season.
“I played in Australia with back pain. I remember during the clay season, things kind of stabilized and I somehow felt a little bit better until I had to play, I think it was Fils in one of the Barcelona quarterfinals that I played there.
“And then the back came back, and it just created a whole lot of uncertainty, and I already — it creates a lot of worry. And when worry is around on a daily basis, it kills you.
“I stopped enjoying practice because my body hurts. And going into a match, your first concern is am I going to finish a match. That’s the number one thing, where before it wasn’t even a question. Why would you stop a match because of pain?
“So I felt like I was dealing with a lot of different battles internally but also physically. There was a lot of things coming here and there. It creates chaos within you. It creates a lot of frustration.
“But, you know, I actually accepted it pretty well. I was able to accept it. If things don’t go well, I know I’ll have another route.”
“When you’re high-ranked and, you know, you’re seeded in this tournament, not just seeded, but one of the high seededs in a big Grand Slam like that, it kind of has the tendency to feel a little bit different when you step out on the court.
“There isn’t much for me to be worried about, I feel like, because I’m just playing and enjoying. If things go well, things go well.
“In my mind, you know, trying to accept also this ancient Greek philosophy of, like, preparing for the worst-case scenario in my mind before I go out into the battlefield, before “I go out into this war zone, let’s just call it, I’ve already kind of embraced that there might be really bad scenarios.
“It won’t always be ideal the way I like it, so going into a match with that kind of mindset allows me to view what I’m doing out there slightly different than usually.
“Before, I’d say too much optimism and too much confidence can also kill your game. I have learned it in different ways throughout my career.”
Currently ranked at No. 53 in the world, he’ll be playing American Ben Shelton for a quarterfinal spot.
Shelton, the 8th seed, defeated Denis Sharapolov in the night match 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, which came after the doubles match featuring the Williams sisters, which lasted three hours.
We waited around for three hours, and when we thought that them putting doubles there would maybe just be an hour. So I think that was hard to deal with, you know, for me.
“The first set was rough, and then serving for it twice in the second, giving that up, is just unacceptable,” said Shelton.
“But yeah, not an easy night. Nowhere near my best. Yeah, I got through it.”
“I think I just settled in. I think the anger fueled me a little bit. I think also just accepting where I was at, the things that I did have, what I needed to do to win, that I not try and play outside my limits.”
Shelton on playing Tsitsipas: “I have been watching his matches. I think he’s playing great. I think that his style of tennis can be very, very effective on all surfaces, all-court game, great athlete.
“We played once my first year on tour. Really looking forward to it.”
