After exactly 2 hours of play at the Margaret Court Arena, Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (6) and qualified for the 2nd round of the Australian Open, for the 5th consecutive year.
Out of the 4 previous ones, 3 of them reached the semi-finals and one of them he completed his appearance in the 3rd round. Tsitsipas hit 17 aces and 46 winners today, 10 more than Halys, while also having only 17 unforced errors compared to the French player’s 30.
Stefanos was generally much better, with the exception of only the 3rd set, in which Halys managed to surprise him and balance things out. In more detail, in the first 2 sets the Greek champion dominated the court.
On his serve he lost only 8 points, from 4 in each set, while he “broke” Halys’ serve once, in the 4th game of the 1st set (3-1) and in the 7th (4-3) of the 2nd. Stef also opened the 3rd set with a break, who in the 2nd game of the 3rd set was faced with break points for the 1st time, but overturned 15-40 and made it 2-0, showing that he would reach a very comfortable straight sets victory. Halys, with nothing left to lose, risked too much on his returns and it paid off, turning the 3rd set into a derby.
Making successive breaks on Stefanos’ serve, to take a 4-2 lead. Tsitsipas fought back and equalized with another break at 4-4, but the Frenchman remained upright for the rest of the set and led 5-4 and 6-5.
He even had a triple set point at 5-6, 0-40 and 4 set points in total in the 12th game, with Stefanos coming out of this very difficult position and sending the set to the tie-break.
There our champion found himself with his back against the wall, after being behind 0-3 and 1-4, but he managed to balance initially and then create his first match points, at 6-5 and 7-6, to tap into the 2nd and complete his mission before things get dangerous.
