Tsitsipas beats Federer at own game

On Sunday at the Australian Open, Roger Federer faced a younger version of himself. Loss to young Greek mirrors long ago upset over Sampras

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA— A veteran right-hander with an allcourt game and a one-handed backhand, the hands-down greatest player of his era, was trying to dodge an upset in a fourth-round match of a grand slam tournament against a former junior world No.1with long hair, a flowing one-handed backhand and no fear.

In their first official head-tohead meeting, Pete Sampras, then 29, could not hold off a 19-year-old Roger Federer, who won in five sets at Wimbledon in 2001.

On Sunday night at the Australian Open, Federer, the twotime defending champion, was the one looking across the net at a younger, fresher, more fearless version of himself. And like Sampras 18 years earlier, Federer had no answer for his fourthround opponent, Stefanos Tsit- sipas, a former junior world No. 1 from Greece who sent him packing with a 6-7 (11), 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-6 (5) defeat in their first official head-to-head meeting.

Federer was the 15th seed in 2001when he beat Sampras, the top seed and a seven-time Wimbledon champion. Tsitsipas, 20, is the 14th seed and the youngest player remaining in the men’s draw. With the victory, Tsitsipas foiled the 37-yearold Federer’s bid to become the oldest man to reach the quarter-finals here since the 43year-old Ken Rosewall in 1977.

“I lost to a better player who was playing very well tonight,” said the third-seeded Federer, a 20-time grand slam champion, including six titles in Australia. “He hung in there, gave himself chances at some point, stayed calm. It’s not always easy, especially for younger guys. Credit to him for taking care of that.”

The match lasted three hours, 45 minutes, but Federer essentially cinched his fate two hours in, after he squandered eight break points, including three on unforced errors, to give Tsitsi- pas enough of an opening to squeeze past him in the second set.

“It definitely didn’t go the way I was hoping on the break points,” said Federer, who kept searching for a weakness to exploit only to see his strengths reflected back at him.

Tsitsipas looked eminently comfortable at the net, and he matched Federer winner for winner on the forehand side, with 15.

“He did a nice job of taking care of his half-volleys,” Federer said. “That’s maybe what won him the match tonight, I’m not sure.”

Perhaps pride kept Federer from equivocating. The difference in the match was Tsitsipas’s youthful energy, which he oozed with his every Tigger-like step. Federer simply couldn’t match it from the first point to the last, a backhand that he netted.

Federer wasted no time after the match completing his media responsibilities, leaving the impression that he couldn’t put this loss in his rearview mirror fast enough. His eyes grew glassy as his news conference wore on, as if his feelings about the loss had traveled from his mouth to his marrow.

“I have massive regrets, you know, tonight,” said Federer, who also announced that he intended to play some events on clay this spring after skipping clay-court season the last two years. “I might not look the part, but I am. I felt like I have to win the second set. I don’t care how I do it, but I have to do it.”

Tsitsipas, who trains at the academy of Patrick Mouratoglou, whose best-known pupil is the 23-time major winner Serena Williams, was proud of the mental toughness he showed in fending off a dozen break points in all.

“I could have cracked at any moment,” he said, “but I didn’t because I really wanted it bad.”

Tsitsipas said he believed from the first point that he could pull off the upset and described the victory as “a beginning of something really big.”

Tsitsipas broke onto the scene last year by reaching the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto in August, defeating four top-10 players, including Novak Djokovic, on the way.

Tsitsipas is in the quarter-finals of a major for the first time. He will face 22nd-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut, 30, who will also be playing his first grand slam quarterfinal.

John McEnroe, a seven-time grand slam winner, conducted the post-match interview with Tsitsipas and described his victory as a changing of the guard.

“I’ve heard that story the last 10 years,” Federer said. “From that standpoint, nothing new.”