Tsitsipas into AO final

Day Twelve - men’s semi final day at the 2023 Australian Open.

2023 Australian Open, on Hard, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16-29 January 2023.

Defending champion:

Rafael Nadal (6) who defeated Daniil Medvedev (2) 2-6 6-7(5) 6-4 6-4 7-5

First semi final:

Karen Khachanov (18) v Stefanos Tsitsipas (3)

Before this semi final, Tsitsipas had won all five of the meetings between the players, four at Masters 1000 level.

Most recently it was on the clay in Rome, May last year.

This would be the fourth semi final appearance at the AO for Tsitsipas, and the first for Khachanov.

Tsitsipas broke the Khachanov serve in games four and eight of set one, but Khachanov broke back immediately in the following games.

The set went to a tie break, and Tsitsipas raced to 6-1. Khachanov saved one of the five set points, but couldn’t prevent Tsitsipas from taking the set 7-6(2).

Khachanov saved three points in the third game of set two, but was broken when serving at 4-4.

Tsitsipas served out the set 6-4.

Tsitsipas broke the Khachanov serve in the third game of set three, and was serving for the match at 5-4.

Khachanov broke back and the set was forced to a tie break.

Points went with serve until Khachanov missed when serving at 3-4.

Tsitsipas had two match points at 6-4, but Khachanov saved both and eventually won the set 7-6(6).

Tsitsipas broke early in the fourth set and led 2-0.

This was enough, as Khachanov couldn’t place pressure on the Tsitsipas serve for the remainder of the set, not even taking it to deuce.

Tsitsipas served out the match 7-6(2) 6-4 6-7(6) 6-3.