He dazzled Rod Laver Arena before fading for two sets. Stefanos Tsitsipas displayed his artistic tennis palette for two sets against Jannik Sinner. Led two sets to nothing, the Italian has yet reversed the trend. The young puncher pushed his opponent to the fifth but the Greek had the nerves strong enough to break in the middle of the last act and to take this advantage until the end of this round of 16 (6-4, 6-4, 3 -6, 4-6, 6-3).
“I tried to stay calm as Mr. Rod Laver did in his time,” he said to the legendary Australian, present in the stands, after the meeting. “My face is burning after this effort, I think I’m going to throw myself into the Yarra (an Australian river) to pass this. »
Last year, Tsitsipas had also stopped Sinner’s course, a lap earlier. The hard surface of the Australian Open is particularly successful for the native of Athens (24 years old). The one-handed backhand right-hander has reached the last four of the first Grand Slam of the year three times. The 4th player in the ATP ranking has a golden opportunity to repeat this performance in 2023. In the quarter-finals, he will challenge the Czech Jiri Lehecka, who surprised Félix Auger-Aliassime in the previous round.
If Lehecka has already decapitated the tournament of three seeds – Borna Coric, Cameron Norrie and FAA -, Tsitsipas can cast his gaze on the horizon as the table seems clear. In the event of victory, he would be opposed to the winner of the duel between Karen Khachanov and Sebastian Korda, players with little or no experience at this stage of the competition.
In the other part of the table, the scarecrow Novak Djokovic is still lurking but the Serb keeps complaining of a thigh injury.