Stephanos Tsitsipas (4th place, Greece) reached the men’s singles final at the Australian Open tennis tournament (total prize money 76.5 million Australian dollars, about 66.26 billion won).
Tsitsipas defeated Karen Khachanov (20th, Russia) in 3 hours and 21 minutes in the men’s singles semifinal on the 12th day of the tournament held in Melbourne, Australia on the 27th, 3-1 (7-6<7-2> 6-4 6-7< 6-8> 6-3).
Tsitsipas will cover the winner of the Novak Djokovic (5th, Serbia)-Tommy Paul (35th, USA) match that will be held next and the owner of the championship trophy on the 29th.
Chichipas, who was eliminated in the semifinals in successive tournaments in 2019, 2021 and 2022, reached the final of the Australian Open for the first time in his life.
He also reached the final of a major event for the second time in his personal career following the 2021 French Open, where he also finished runner-up.
Tsitsipas has reached the semifinals of six majors so far, four of them at the Australian Open.
Djokovic, who has won the Australian Open a record 9 times, is called the ‘Man of the Australian Open’ in name and reality, but among the younger generation, Tsitsipas is considered a strong player in this tournament.
In this tournament, Tsitsipas finished all 4 games without a loss, except for the 4th round and the semi-final match with Jannik Sinner (16th place, Italy), who won 3-2 after a 4-hour match.
Tsitsipas’ powerful forehand, which is evaluated as having risen in this tournament, also shone against Khachanov.
Tsitsipas, who took the first set, scored a point with a sharp forehand after 22 rallies in the Khachanov sub game in a tight situation with the game score of the second set being 4-4, further tipping the pendulum to his side.
Khachanov had a couple of easy smashing opportunities, but all of them were blocked by Tsitsipas’ relentless play.
Khachanov’s shot also grazed the net, but Tsitsipas also countered it.
Tsitsipas, who led by a game score of 5-4, eventually took the second set as well.
He missed a chance to take a match point in the third set that went to the tie-break and eventually went to the fourth set, but here he won without error.
Tsitsipas had an edge over Khachanov in most key metrics, including sub-aces (18-10), winners (66-46), and total points earned (145-123).
Tsitsipas continued his absolute dominance against Khachanov with a total of 6 wins. 스포츠토토
Khachanov had to be content with reaching the semifinals at two major tournaments in a row following last year’s US Open.