Stefanos Tsitsipas, Greek tennis champion, had his dreams of an Australian Open final crushed after being defeated by Russian player Daniil Medvedev on Friday.
Medvedev is known as an incredibly challenging player to counter, as he is known for his power and speed.
The Greek champion faced a rematch of last year’s Aussie Open semi-final against Daniil Medvedev after the Russian beat Felix Auger-Aliassime on Wednesday.
Tsitsipas went into Australian Open semifinal after defeating Jannik Sinner
Stefanos Tsitsipas put a flawless performance to defeat Italian Jannik Sinner 6-3 6-4 6-2 on Wednesday, which set him up for his third Australian Open semifinal.
After surviving an up-and-down five-setter against American No. 1 Taylor Fritz, the World No. 4 maintained an elite level throughout the two-hour, five-minute contest on Rod Laver Arena.
Tsitsipas, who won all four of his breakpoints, did his damage early in each set. On serve, he was pushed as far as deuce just once and never faced a breakpoint.
“Jannik is a very good player. So I tried to focus on my best shots and it paid off more than I thought,” Tsitsipas said in his on-court interview. “I am very, very happy with the way I served today and the way I came in and used my tactics in today’s match structure. Having the crowd support is truly unbelievable.”
Heavy rain forced a 20-minute delay as the roof was closed and the court dried.
“It is part of the game,” Tsitsipas said on the roof closing. “I knew I was heading towards the right direction with the game I managed to create from the start of the match. The conditions changed when the roof was closed, slightly faster. I tried to adapt to these new conditions and it just worked.”
Tsitsipas hoped to go a step further in Australian Open this year
Tsitsipas hoped to go better than his previous performance at the Australian Open where he reached the semi-finals in 2021.
Tsitsipas started his 2021 Australian Open campaign with a comfortable straight sets win over Gilles Simon, before surviving a five-set thriller with Thanasi Kokkinakis.
He then beat Mikael Ymer in straight sets before being given over a walkover by an injured Matteo Berrettini.
In the quarterfinals, Tsitsipas became only the second player along with Fabio Fognini at the 2015 US Open to beat Rafael Nadal in a grand slam match from two sets to love down.
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