Stefanos Tsitsipas battled past Illya Ivashka 6-1 4-6 6-2 after 2 hours and 13 minutes on a rainy day at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. Almost all of matches were cancelled because of rain.
Tsitsipas was leading 5-1 in the first set with two breaks in the fourth and sixth games when rainy weather forced the match to be postponed.
Ivashka, who won the Winston Salem title last year, earned his first break in the 12th game with a backhand up the line to close out the second set 6-4.
Tsitsipas broke serve in the third game of the decider to take a 2-1 lead with a forehand error from Ivashka. The Greek player held on his next service games and earned his second break of serve in the seventh game to close out the third set 6-2.
Tsitsipas won 65 % of his second serve points compared to 36% for Ivashka.
Tsitsipas reached the final in Barcelona twice in 2018 and 2021, finishing runner-up to Rafael Nadal both times.
Tsitsipas set up a third round match against Grigor Dimitrov, who lost to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the semifinal at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters last week. Tsitsipas leads 2-1 in his three head-to-head matches against Dimitrov