Australian Open fan favorite Stefanos Tsitsipas survived an inspired comeback bid by Jannik Sinner to maintain his quest for a maiden major title Sunday night in Melbourne. A rundown of how the Greek's five-set victory played out:
In last year’s AO quarterfinals, Tsitsipas picked apart Sinner in a one-sided affair: 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
And for a while it looked like history would repeat itself, despite Sinner bringing more to the table.
Tsitsipas took the opening set, 6-4, by saving five of six break points.
He extended his lead by posting another 6-4 set…
… before Sinner rallied to grab the third, 6-3.
In set four, the Italian won four straight points from 40-15 to break Tsitsipas in the third game—and maintained the cushion to force a decider.
Early in the fifth set, Sinner recovered from 0-40 to hold for 2-2—inishing with a forehand winner…
… but down 0-40 again the next time, Tsitsipas ultimately secured the key break off Sinner's unforced error two points later to move ahead 4-2…
... and completed the win after four hours on the dot by serving it out without issue for his fourth trip to the quarterfinals here.
The bigger news afterwards might have been that Tsitsi-postcards are back in stock!