Melbournians have a lot to celebrate today after one of their honorary own stars in Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece) has taken one of the two Final spots in the men’s singles running for this Sunday, having defeated Karen Khachanov (Russia) with three stages being won out of a four-set contest at Rod Laver Arena – 6-7 (2-7 tie), 4-6, 7-6 (8-6 tie) & 3-6.
We’re gutted to see Khachanov fall short outside the semis once again off the back of the US Open last year. He played not bad where Khachanov showed so much fight right from the beginning that threw the pressure right back at Tsitsipas plenty of times, especially when he denied two match points late in the 3rd set tiebreak before he was able to continue into the 4th set with the mini win from two sets down. Sadly, he was a long, long way from closing in on Tsitsipas for the overall lead, where Tsitsipas took his time to get the job done with a quickfire response in the end & that confirmed his exit from the semi-finals. He’s 26 right now so still plenty of time to go one better past the last 4 later this year at other grand slams – such as, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open.
Meanwhile, it’s great to see Tsitsipas advance into his 2nd grand slam singles final since the 2021 Roland Garros where he was runner-up to potential other main event opponent in Novak Djokovic, who is set to play shortly in the 2nd semis tie v Tommy Paul (USA). He was brilliant as always from start to finish, especially when he didn’t always have a great time against a difficult player like Khachanov on-court. However, Tsitsipas held his momentum well under pressure that went all the way through the end of each set, where he got away with the first two stage wins. Although, he couldn’t close out a couple of match point attempts on Khachanov that could’ve been done in straight sets following the third set loss; but he responded really well with an easy finish & the crowd are really loving it. He’s ready for his next big breakthrough moment yet, as Tsitsipas has the Melbourne supporters behind him ahead of his “home” Final going into this Sunday.
