Stefanos Tsitsipas faces Taylor Fritz in the fourth round of the 2022 Australian Open on Monday, January 24th 2022.
Will Stefanos Tsitsipas get himself into a quarterfinal to give himself a chance at a title run here, or will Taylor Fritz use the momentum from his amazing win to get another upset win?
Taylor Fritz played an incredible marathon match in the third round, beating the extremely tough, roberto Bautista Agut in 5 sets. Taylor won the opening set 6-0, and was then able to make a comeback after Roberto won the second and third set. Taylor was very solid on his first serve, but the match was also full of tiebreaks, due to both players struggling heavily on their second serve. Taylor won 10/19 break points, and Roberto won 7/13. This match could have gone either way, but Taylor was the better composed player in the tight moments.
Stefanos Tsitsipas met the always unpredictable, Benoit Paire, beating the Frenchman in 4 sets in the third round. Tsitsipas was in control of the match for the majority of it, but at times he became a bit passive because he took things too lightly. This backfired in the third set where Paire stepped his level up in the tiebreak. However, Tsitsipas quickly got back on track and got himself on top of the 4th set and prevented what would have been an interesting 5th set.
This is going to be the 3rd meeting between both players, with Tsitsipas having won both of their prior encounters. They have not met in 3 years, therefore we cannot really use those as a reference because there were miles of distance between both of their levels at that time. Since 2019, Taylor has drastically improved and has made a name for himself on the big stage. Taylor is excited to be this far and he has played so well that he knows he can keep things tight. However, in the second week of a grand slam is new for him, and Tsitsipas will know that he can take advantage of the nerves on his opponents’ end.