Stefanos Tsitsipas has not had the easiest of rides at this year’s French Open and that trend continued when the no.4 seed faced Zdenek Kolar.
The 2021 French Open runner-up defeated the Czech qualifier 6-3, 7-6 (8), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (7) at Court Suzanne Lenglen in another slugfest.
The 134th-ranked Kolar showed promise throughout the match but wasted four set points to force a fifth set as Tsitsipas evened the last tiebreaker at 6-6 before closing out the match just past the 4-hour mark.
In his first clash with Kolar, Tsitsipas made a strong start on Court Suzanne Lenglen to bag the opening set in 35 minutes.
But the Greek was soon forced to play from behind as the 134th-ranked Czech raced to a 4-1 lead in the second.
But Tsitsipas upped the ante to level before taking the second set after a long tiebreaker.
The 25-year-old Kolar showed resilience to stay in touch with Tsitsipas in the third set before dominating the tiebreaker to force a fourth.
After trading service breaks, Kolar was a point away from forcing a fifth but was unable to convert his chances in the tiebreaker as Tsitsipas sealed the win on his first chance.
Tsitsipas will be hoping for an easier match next time around as he meets 95th-ranked Mikael Ymer of Sweden for a place in the fourth round after spending nearly eight hours on court across his first two matches.
