Greek star tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas will get a chance to win his first grand slam title after he defeated Karen Khachanov 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 in Friday's semifinal on Friday. He was at his aggressive best, compiling a massive 66 winners to go with his 18 aces.
It was his highest winner tally of the tournament so far, eclipsing his 48 in five sets against Jannik Sinner, and his 46 in three sets against Quentin Halys.
Despite his high level of play, the first set was closely contested as both players secured a pair of breaks, but Tsitsipas was able to rattle off five consecutive points in the tiebreaker to run away with the opener. The world number four did not allow Khachanov a single break-point opportunity in a stylish second set, and it was the same story in the third until Khachanov crucially took his one break-point chance as Tsitsipas was serving for the match.
Khachanov showed guts to fight off two match points and take the third in a tiebreaker, but he was just delaying the inevitable as Tsitsipas racked up 17 winners to five and made the fourth set the shortest of the match. The Greek star will face the winner between Novak Djokovic and Tommy Paul in the final, with a chance to become Greece's first grand slam champion at the age of 24.
Data Slam: Tsitsipas conquers his demons down under
It was the fourth time Tsitsipas had reached the final four of the Australian Open, but after failures in 2019, 2021 and 2022, the Greek finally got over the line against his Russian challenger.
ACES/DOUBLE FAULTS
Tsitsipas – 18/5
Khachanov – 10/1
WINNERS/UNFORCED ERRORS
Tsitsipas – 66/34
Khachanov – 46/32
BREAK POINTS WON
Tsitsipas – 5/12
Khachanov – 3/4
(With Opta Inputs)
