WATCH: Stefanos Tsitsipas loses his cool, destroys his racket during tough battle against Jan-Lennard Struff in Italian Open 2R

Stefanos Tsitsipas had a rough start to his 2024 Italian Open campaign as he found Jan-Lennard Struff's tennis challenging during their second-round meeting on Saturday, May 11. Tsitsipas received a bye in the first round.

The Greek faced a break on his very first service game at the Foro Italico on Saturday as Struff pressed right from the word go. The Greek was notably up 40:30 but Struff managed to turn it around to snatch the game.

This angered Tsitsipas and he proceeded to destroy his racket and the towel holder placed between the line judge and the ball kid after the first game was over.

Watch the video below:

The sixth-seed, however, managed to get back on serve by breaking Struff in the eighth game but the two players then remained deadlocked inducing a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Tsitsipas turned out to be no match for his opponent from Germany as Struff raced to a 5-0 lead and eventually claimed the set.

The second set saw three breaks of serve with Tsitsipas winning two of them and eventually claiming the set to draw equal with Struff. The decider unfolded similarly with Struff breaking once and the 2024 Monte-Carlo champion doing it twice to complete the comeback and advance to the third round with a 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-4 win.

The match lasted for two hours and 34 minutes at the Grand Stand Arena in Rome.

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Stefanos Tsitsipas to face Cameron Norrie in Italian Open 3R

Stefanos Tsitsipas in action at the 2024 Italian Open.

Stefanos Tsitsipas will lock horns with Britain's Cameron Norrie in the third round of the 2024 Italian Open on Monday, May 13. Like Tsitsipas, 27th-seed Norrie received a bye in the first round and overcame Spain's Jaume Munar in the second in a three-setter.

Tsitsipas and Norrie have played against each other twice thus far. Their head-to-head tally hangs in balance at 1-1.

The two clashed the first time in the final of the 2021 Parc Open where Tsitsipas drew first blood. He defeated Norrie 6-3, 6-3 to claim the ATP 250 title on the back of three break points.

Their second encounter came in the semifinals of the 2022 Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, with the Brit winning 6-4, 6-4.

If Stefanos Tsitsipas manages to go past Cameron Norrie, he will have to face either Alex de Minaur or Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round.