Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev were once two peas in the same pod. Each was a tall player who could serve well and was excellent on clay. Zverev, though, began to grow his game, and he was a more dangerous threat on all surfaces than Tsitsipas appeared capable of being.
While Zverev won his first major in 2026 by taking the title at the French Open and then followed that with his first Wimbledon final, losing in four tough sets to Jannik Sinner, Tsitsipas was still in a bit of a free fall, both personally and professionally.
He had a public breakup with Paula Badosa, and his relationship with his father, who was his long-time coach, appeared not to be great either. Working through these emotions while trying to rebuild his tennis game wasn't working. His backhand was a mess, and his ranking was tanking.
Stefanos Tistsipas defeats Ignacio Buse at the Swiss Open
He is only 27 years old, though, and still has time to have a remarkable career. Tsitsipas is also still good on clay, and he proved that by opening his 2026 Swiss Open match against Ignacio Buse with confidence.
In a tight first set, the Greek player only had one unforced error on his backhand while hitting three winners from the wing. More importantly, he was dominating with her serve, rarely dropping a point. He looked like Tsitsipas of old on the Swiss Open clay. That should be a scary image for any future opponent.
Buse wasn't playing badly overall, but made a few more errors at key times and dropped the set 4-6. The match was so close that any dip in form by Tsitsipas might allow Buse to take over.
That appeared to be the case midway through the second set. In Buse's first two service games, he was down love-30, but fought back to hold. At 3-all, it was Buse who got the break, and we appeared to be headed to a third set, but Tsitsipas got the break right back and then held.
The Greek player got a break point in the following game, but Buse kept pounding Tsitsipas' backhand, an aspect of the player's game that still needs a lot of work, and got back to even. Tsitsipas didn't give in and eventually got the break to take set two 6-4.
Stefanos Tsitsipas will next play Jerome Kym in the round of 16 at the Swiss Open. If the Greek plays as well as he did against Buse, Tsitsipas has a real chance of reaching at least the semifinals.
