Tsitsipas edges Fritz, ends US men’s hopes
MELBOURNE, Australia – For Taylor Fritz, the difference between reaching the Grand Slam quarterfinals for the first time and missing out again came down to three points in an 3⁄ 12 -hour, five-set loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Australian Open.
The 24-year-old Fritz was aiming to put an American man back into the quarterfinals of a major tournament. Tennys Sandgren in 2020 was the last one to do it, reaching the last eight in Australia.
Last year, for the first time since 2015, no American men reached the quarterfinals of a major. And after Maxime Cressy lost in four sets to U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev in the heat of Monday afternoon, it was all up to Fritz.
The No. 20 seed took the first set off Tsitsipas – last year’s French Open runner-up – and, after dropping the second, again took the lead by clinching the third set with a curling cross-court forehand winner at 10:42 p.m.
That’s where experience made a difference on Rod Laver Arena, the main show court at Melbourne Park. Fritz was playing in the fourth round for the first time in his 22nd Grand Slam event and was 0-5 against top 5 players in the majors.
Tsitsipas had been there before, and had a lot of support in the stands from Melbourne’s large Greek community.
So when Fritz gave him a break-point chance in the ninth game of the fifth set, only his second look in the set, Tsitsipas stepped up. Fritz netted a volley to give Tsitsipas the break, and the fourthseeded Greek finished off a 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory two minutes after midnight to conclude Day 8.
“In the end, I struggled a little bit at finishing off some points I needed to finish off,” Fritz said. “He served very well under pressure, but I can’t give him those breaks that I did.
“The three times I got broken were more just donations from me, and not so much anything he did other than make me play.”
On the women’s side, Alize Cornet survived a second-set meltdown to advance to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal after 63 main-draw appearances with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win over Simona Halep.
Cornet led by a set and 3-1 before losing five consecutive games and 16 straight points to send the match to a decider.
Halep saved two match points on her serve in the ninth game before Cornet clinched the match in the 10th. She dropped to her knees and clasped her hands together as she looked up to her support team when Halep netted a return.