No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece rallied Monday to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals in Melbourne.
Tsitsipas survived a 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 thriller against American Taylor Fritz in three hours and 23 minutes.
Monday’s other fourth-round winners were No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia, No. 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada and No. 11 Jannik Sinner of Italy.
Tsitsipas struck 53 winners and 19 aces and saved 13 of the 15 break points he faced. He broke Fritz three times, including the eighth game of the fourth set and the ninth game of the fifth set.
“I gave everything out on the court today,” Tsitsipas said in his on-court interview. “I am very proud of myself with the way I fought and the way I stay consistent in the crucial moments. I am overwhelmed. The stadium was on fire. It is too good to be true.”
Tsitsipas improved his record to 3-0 against Fritz and he is now 8-6 in five-set matches.
Still looking for his first Grand Slam trophy, the 23-year-old Tsitsipas will face Sinner in the quarterfinals. Sinner was the day’s only straight sets winner, taking down local favorite and No. 32 seed Alex de Minaur 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-4.
Sinner, who has only dropped one set at Melbourne Park, saved seven of eight break points, won 75 percent of his first-serve points (52 of 69) and won 81 percent of points at the net (26 of 32).
“I think in the beginning I was just serving well,” Sinner said. “He had more chances than me in the first set, then after I tried to push a little bit more, especially in the tie-break, which maybe made the difference. Then I went into my confidence, and I tried to move him a little bit, but it’s very tough playing against Alex, especially here in Australia. He always plays very, very well.”
Medvedev and Auger-Aliassime also meet in the final eight.
Medvedev, a finalist here last year, survived a serve-and-volley attack from unseeded 6-foot-6 American Maxime Cressy with a 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-5 win in three hours and 30 minutes.
Auger-Aliassime eliminated 27th-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2, 7-6 (4) to reach his third consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal. Auger-Aliassime fired 22 aces and withstood 61 winners from Milic in a match that lasted three hours and 39 minutes.
–Field Level Media
