Tsitsipas defeats Griekspoor to set Sinner clash in round of 16

Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 3 seed, beat Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-3 to move into the last 16 of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Friday night.

Tsitsipas, ranked No 4, will play Italian Jannik Sinner, the No 15 seed, next.

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Tennis Majors

Tsitsipas 4-1 vs Sinner

The Greek notched a straight-sets triumph over Sinner in Melbourne last year, in the quarter-finals. He owns a 4-1 lifetime record against the Italian and has taken their last three encounters.

The Greek won against Frenchman Quentin Halys (6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (6)) and Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata (6-3, 6-0, 6-2) in the previous rounds.

Earlier in the tournament, Griekspoor, ranked No 63, won against Russian lucky loser Pavel Kotov (6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-3) and No 32 seed Botic Van De Zandschulp (6-4, 6-4, 6-4).

“It was the first challenging match coming from a player that has done well in the last couple of weeks, has had a good streak in the last two, three weeks. I knew I had to deal with something big today. It was not easy in the second set. I didn’t know how I’m supposed to survive that, but I found ways that kept me inside the tiebreaker. I just waited. I think the second set was important for me to get ahead in the score and to get a little bit of a psychological boost of what I was supposed to do in the third. Generally very satisfied with today’s quality on the court.”

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):

• Tommy Paul vs. Jenson Brooksby
• Andy Murray vs. Roberto Bautista Agut
• J.J. Wolf vs. Michael Mmoh
• Alexei Popyrin vs. Ben Shelton
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Novak Djokovic
• Benjamin Bonzi vs. Alex De Minaur
• Ugo Humbert vs. Holger Rune
• Andrey Rublev vs. Daniel Evans
• Sebastian Korda vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Hubert Hurkacz vs. Denis Shapovalov
• Karen Khachanov vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Cameron Norrie vs. Jiri Lehecka
• Francisco Cerundolo vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime: friday
• Mackenzie McDonald vs. Yoshihito Nishioka: friday
• Jannik Sinner beat Marton Fucsovics: 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0