“Sometimes I was close to losing him, he looked like a mountain.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas (No. 7) continued his series of victories on clay courts, this time against Argentine Facundo Diaz Acosta, winning 1-2 and qualifying for the fourth time in his career to the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open.

But the Argentine did not make the Greek tennis player’s task easy, as the world number 7 confirmed that he was several moments close to “losing.”

“At certain moments of the match I was very close to losing. It seemed like a mountain. It was very difficult to maintain the same level throughout the match, and on the other hand I think she played incredibly well. She left everything out on the court.

He's a good player on clay. He has won the ATP title and today he showed why, taking the court to a very high level. I feel that having many matches in the “zone” helps me deal with situations like this.

I knew that anything was possible at any time. Even when I was serving I was careful. Of course you want to play your serve perfectly, hit aces and win easy points, but it doesn't work that way on clay, and clay doesn't give you anything “for free”, you have to work for every point.

I lost some power in my mission to tell the truth. I was going very slowly, but once I realized that, I was able to come back and that was something that helped me a lot in the tiebreak because if I didn't get it, I wouldn't know.

“It was a mental game and I had to play as hard as I could at some points.”