ANTHONY WALLACE/ AFP
Stefanos Tsitsipas reached the Australian Open semi-finals for the fourth time because the Greek noticed off rising Czech Jiri Lehecka 6-3 7-6(2) 6-4 on Tuesday.
The third seed dominated the opening set after breaking a nervy Lehecka early on however was pushed onerous after that towards the 21-year-old who has loved a breakout event.
Lehecka, who had by no means received a Grand Slam match earlier than arriving in Melbourne, used his highly effective baseline recreation to stick with Tsitsipas within the second set however the Greek raised his recreation to ease by means of the tiebreak.
Tsitsipas was pressured to save lots of three successive break factors at 3-3 within the third set as Lehecka threatened to increase the Rod Laver Arena conflict.
The 24-year-old then pounced with Lehecka serving at 4-5, reaching match level with a searing backhand go and wrapping up victory as his opponent netted a backhand.
Tsitsipas will face Russian Karen Khachanov within the semi-final when he’ll once more take pleasure in robust assist from the various Greek-origin followers in Melbourne.
“I can say it was a fair dinkum type of performance,” Tsitsipas stated on court docket. “It felt completely different this time from the opposite time we performed however I discovered an answer.
“I had to deal with groundstrokes that were coming at me heavy and deep. I put my heart out there.”
Lehecka, who loved spectacular wins towards seeded gamers Borna Coric, Cameron Norrie and Felix Auger-Aliassime throughout his run, will rue not taking any of eight break factors.
His large probability got here when Tsistipas double-faulted to go 0-40 down at 3-3 within the third set, however he was unable to transform any of them and after that the writing was on the wall.
