The second Grand Slam final in Stefanos Tsitsipas’ career is at hand. The 24-year-old Greek tennis player and current number four in the world qualified for the title game at the Australian Open by meeting the forecast at the top of the draw.
Tsitsipas had no problems, or indeed due to an oversight, to overcome Russian Karen Khachanov in four sets with partials of 7-6, 6-4, 6-7 and 6-3, a match that showed a superlative version of the Hellenic. The number three seed of the tournament was in control of the contest during practically the entire contest.
Despite the fact that he broke his opponent’s serve twice during the opening set, in the end he had to define it in a tiebreak. The second and third episodes seemed to be in his hands. When everything pointed to him winning the game in straight sets, he lost serve to him as he served for the win.
Once again they went to a tiebreak, there he had two match points that he wasted with Khachanov scoring some points to remember. With nothing left to lose, he let his powerful right flow and it worked. After forcing a fourth set and when the Russian had a slight air of hope, Tsitsipas managed to go up 3-0 and head for the final victory.
The Greek finished with 16 ‘aces’, five double faults and broke the Russian’s serve in 5 of the 12 chances he generated. There are already six victories at Melbourne Park for a Tsitsipas who has barely left two sets on the road, both against the Italian Jannik Sinner.
Tsitsipas wants to become the World No. 1
Stefanos Tsitsipas stated that he wants to become the World No. 1 on the ATP tour after being ranked No. 1 in the juniors earlier in his career. “I remember watching it on TV and saying to myself, I want to be there one day myself.
I want to recreate that feeling for myself. I knew that’s a very long journey to get there. There are certain steps you have to take to give yourself the chance to be competing for something like this. But I very much believed it,” he said.
“Thank God I was good in my country. Starting from that, I knew if I’m able to get out of my country and compete in other countries, I proved myself over and over again that I’m actually good. I did finish as a junior No. 1. Now I want to do it in the men’s side, in the men’s professional tennis, yeah,” Stefanos Tsitsipas added.
