There was a lot of action at the Australian Open in Melbourne over the weekend with Maria Sakkari being eliminated from the tournament, whilst the ‘Special K’s’ (Nick Kyrgios and Thanasis Kokkinakis) and Stefanos Tsitsipas progressed to their next rounds.
Here is The Greek Herald‘s rundown of this weekend’s matches:
Stefanos Tsitsipas beats Paire without realising it:
Stefanos Tsitsipas fought off Benoit Paire to reach the Australian Open fourth round on Saturday with a tough 6-3 7-5 6-7(2) 6-4 win.
But in a funny turn-of-events, Tsitsipas appeared not to realise the game was over after converting match point.
Paire dunked a forehand into the net on the first of three match points when serving to stay in the match, but fourth seed Tsitsipas walked to the back of the court rather than approach the net.
The Greek turned around at the baseline with a look of surprise on his face, before walking forward to acknowledge Paire.
“I’m pretty glad with that win, Benoit is someone I say is one of the biggest stars in our game,” Tsitsipas, who is a former semi-finalist at Melbourne Park, said in his post-match interview.
Having held Paire at bay at Rod Laver Arena, the Greek crumbled in the third set tiebreak to let the Frenchman back into the match.
Paire kept in touch to 4-4 in the fourth set before conceding the match points with a double-fault.
Tsitsipas will meet with American Taylor Fritz today for a place in the quarter-finals.
Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis continue dream doubles run:
Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis have stormed into the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles draw at the Australian Open.
The Australians took down 15th seeds Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 inside a packed Kia Arena.
At one set apiece, the deciding third was on a knife’s edge until the Australian duo got a break of serve in the fifth game.
Later at 5-4, Kyrgios served for the match, before Kokkinakis iced the victory with a brilliant backhand volley at the net that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
The pair took to the court in the wake of Kyrgios’s claim he and Kokkinakis were threatened with violence following their win over number one seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic on Friday.
In what was an upset second-round result, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis defeated the Croatian pairing 7-6 (10-8), 6-3.
Now Kyrgios and Kokkinakis will play sixth seeds Tim Pütz and Michael Venus in the quarter-finals.
Maria Sakkari eliminated at Australian Open:
Fifth-seed Maria Sakkari crashed out of the Australian Open on Sunday, losing in straight sets, 6-7 (0-7), 3-6 to Jessica Pegula of the United States.
Sakkari was trying to reach her first Australian Open Quarterfinal but could not overcome Pegula, losing to her for the first time in their three encounters.
The first set was fairly even until Pegula dominated the tie-break, winning without conceding a point. Pegula jumped into an early lead in the second, going up 5-2.
Sakkari held serve in the next game and tried hard for a break in the ninth, staving off a match point, but Pegula held to advance to her second consecutive quarterfinal in the competition.
Source: Ekathimerini, Ekathimerini, ABC News.
