Stefanos Tsitsipas is playing for a double prize this fortnight at the Australian Open. The Greek certainly started his campaign like a man on a mission on Monday at Melbourne Park, where he eased past Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(6) to reach the second round.
Prior to the tournament, the Greek had spoken about his desire to carry the impressive form he showed at the United Cup, where he went 4-0 during Team Greece’s run to the semi-finals at the mixed-teams event, into the first Grand Slam of the 2023 season. The 24-year-old did just that, delivering a highly aggressive and largely consistent performance — and holding off a third-set resurgence from Halys — to seal victory in exactly two hours.
“It was challenging,” acknowledged Tsitsipas after saving four set points in the third set before completing the win. “He came up with some good tennis towards the end of the third set. I kind of lost my rhythm on the serve. I wasn’t expecting to get broken twice, so I had to find ways to kind of get out of there, this difficult situation.
“I think my fighting spirit showed that towards the end. I wasn’t going to give up and even though I faced difficult situations in the tie-break, being down in the score, I got some good crowd support and we came back and won this together.”
The 24-year-old Tsitsipas, who reached the semi-finals at the opening Grand Slam of the season in 2019, 2021 and 2022, is chasing his maiden major crown this fortnight. Should the third seed go all the way in Melbourne, he would also overtake the injured Carlos Alcaraz to become No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time. He will meet home wild card Rinky Hijikata or German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann in the second round.