Like a year ago, Stefanos Tsitsipas is in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open . But it's a whole different story compared to last year, when Jannik Sinner never got into the game and crashed to the Greek champion in a match without history that sanctioned his divorce from the historic coach Riccardo Piatti .
This time Tsitsipas had to sweat over 4 hours to beat the South Tyrolean tennis player on the Rod Laver Arena court: 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 the final score in 4 hours and 2 minutes . Sinner can regret the large number of squandered break points: he only exploited 4 out of 26, against the 5 out of 11 capitalized by his opponent .
First two sets photocopied: the Greek immediately goes ahead by a break, the blue comes back but loses his serve on 4-4, giving up 6-4. Sinner suffers from the backs and loaded balls, which bounce very high, from the Greek. But from the third set another game begins : the South Tyrolean serves and responds well and thus manages to take command of the exchanges. He places the break in the fourth game and keeps it until 6-3. In the fourth set, the decisive break comes instead in the third game. The blue seems to have the wind in his sails, but the backlash of the Greek champion arrives, who plays a fifth and decisive set that is simply perfect on serve, while Sinner is no longer able to put the first . The Italian goes back up from 0-40 in the fourth game, but fails to repeat the feat in the sixth, the break arrives which decides the set and the game.
Sinner was the last Italian in the draw, now Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals will face the Czech Lehecka, who placed the big surprise of the day by beating Auger Aliassime. The other quarter is between the American Korda, who prevailed in a battle at the tie break of the fifth against the Polish Hurkacz, and the Russian Kachanov, who settled Nishioka in three sets.
In the women's draw the adventure of number 1 Iga Swiatek ends, defeated in two sets by the Kazakh Rybakina.
(Unioneonline/L)