Stefanos Tsitsipas survives a scare at the Australian Open

On Sunday, Stefanos Tsitsipas won a rare match for the top seeds at the Australian Open by beating Jannik Sinner in a five-set thriller.

Last year at Melbourne Park, third-seeded Tsitsipas eliminated Sinner in the quarterfinals; this year, he won 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 in front of a packed Rod Laver Arena, crushing the Italian’s aspirations of a remarkable escape.

When Sinner came storming back to win the third set, Tsitsipas had already dominated the Greek for two sets. However, in the sixth game of the deciding set, Tsitsipas gained the critical break and then won the match with a spectacular cross-court forehand winner.

The three-time semi-finalist at the Australian Open will face off against the unseeded 21-year-old Czech Jiri Lehecka.

With another big name out of the tournament, the second week of the Australian Open has been lacking in star power. However, on Sunday, unseeded Czech Jiri Lehecka defeated sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(2), 7-6(3) to go to the quarterfinals.

After Auger-Aliassime, age 22, broke in the third game en route to winning the first set in 35 minutes, the unseeded Lehecka took charge of the match.

Once the match was evened up in the second set, Lehecka held serve thanks to a deft volley at the net, and then he capitalised on errors made by 2022 quarterfinalist Auger-Aliassime in the third set tiebreak to win the match.