Stefanos Tsitsipas, 24, has become the youngest player since the great Roger Federer to reach three consecutive Australian Open semi-finals, according to BBC Sport. On Tuesday, Tsitsipas defeated Jiri Lehecka in straight sets to reach his third consecutive semi-final at Melbourne Park.
Federer, now 41, was an Australian Open semi-finalist every year between 2004 and 2014. After reaching his first Australian Open semi-final in 2019, Tsitsipas has now reached the semi-final at Melbourne Park every year between 2021 and 2023.
Tsitsipas is set to face Khachanov in the Australian Open semi-finals.
Can Tsitsipas win an Australian Open semi-final for the first time? In 2019, Tsitsipas was beaten by Rafael Nadal in straight sets in the Australian Open semi-finals.
Over the past two years, Tsitsipas has picked up back-to-back Australian Open semi-final losses to Daniil Medvedev. But ahead of the match against Khachanov, Tsitsipas thinks it’s time for a big breakthrough at the Australian Open.
“I feel very good with my tennis. I don’t think I’ve felt this good in a long time. I will definitely say yes [au titre]. I’ve said it before, I’m a different player, I play differently.
My mentality is different. When I’m on the pitch, I don’t really think about the negatives, to be honest. I go there and play the game. There is a way of looking at tennis that is to be exhausted after every game.
Everything you try to do on the court takes a lot of effort. There’s this other version of tennis where you do your job, but you enjoy it so much that you don’t care if it’s exhausting or not.
You recharge yourself every time. I think I’ve been leaning more towards that lately. I am very happy to be on the pitch. I am very happy to play. I am very happy to hit good shots, to succeed in my matches.
It’s all this dynamic that made me very thirsty and made me want to play tennis and achieve new things,” said Tsitsipas.