Australian Open: Stefanos Tsitsipas Survives Five-Set Marathon To Enter Third Round

World quantity six Stefanos Tsitsipas was pushed to a marathon 5 units by wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis on Thursday, earlier than making the Australian Open third spherical. The favored Greek star dropped solely 4 video games in his first-round match, however confronted a far sterner problem from the 267th-ranked Australian. He lastly got here by 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 however wanted 4hr 32min to get the job completed at Rod Laver Area. “I simply need to have an ice tub proper now,” stated a relieved Tsitsipas.

“He is a superb competitor, a fantastic fighter and it was very tough going through him right now. He has a fantastic serve and all of the weapons from the baseline. Was a hell of a day.”     

The 22-year-old subsequent performs Swede Mikael Ymer, who beat promising Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz.

Tsitsipas went into the match as sizzling favorite, having demolished Gilles Simon in his opening match and by no means having misplaced a Grand Slam match to a participant ranked as little as Kokkinakis.

He has a strong document in opposition to Australians, with Nick Kyrgios, who was watching within the stadium, the one one to ever beat him.

However Kokkinakis, who has been tormented by harm and sickness throughout his profession, fought laborious.

With the house crowd turning into ever extra vociferous of their help, he gave nearly as good as he acquired in an in depth first set, with each gamers buying and selling blows in lengthy rallies and large serves.

The Australian saved two set factors at 4-5 and took it to a tiebreaker, the place he prevailed on the again of a Tsitsipas double fault.

However the Greek’s superior firepower and health got here to the fore within the second set, and by the third Kokkinakis gave the impression to be working out of steam, unable to match Tsitsipas’ consistency.

He discovered a second wind, although, within the fourth set and after saving a match level at 4-5 took it to a fifth, buoyed by the vitality of the gang.

Promoted

Nonetheless, Tsitsipas’ unrelenting return on serve wore him down and he acquired a decisive break in fifth sport as Kokkinakis drained. 

Tsitsipas, into the third spherical for third successive 12 months, is seeking to higher his 2019 effort when he made the semi-finals, beating Roger Federer earlier than dropping to Rafael Nadal.