Khachanov saved the first with a brilliant, lengthy rally to get the tiebreak back on his racquet, then painting the line twice in the same point to get it to 6-6.

Tsitsipas earned the first mini-break to lead 5-3, then served his way to two match points. Tsitsipas served for a spot in the final at 5-4 but the Russian battled brilliantly on break point, saving the point numerous times before a Tsitsipas error kept him in the match. Khachanov was forced into a major battle at 2-4 just to hold and stay within a break, though he eventually managed to do so. “It didn’t used to be that way in generations past, you could be one or the other and still have a lot of success, but the game has moved on, and now it’s very difficult to have sustainability, I think, if you can’t stay in points with defence.” “And then you have other players that are really good offensively but are a little more limited defensively, and I would put Khachanov in that category, and especially over best of five sets, it can really get exposed. Stefanos Tsitsipas won a seesawing opening set against Karen Khachanov, which saw both players broken twice in the opening nine games of their semi-final clash on Rod Laver Arena. Open and the Australian Open, players play a tiebreak if they are.

It marks six consecutive victories over Khachanov for Tsitsipas. When it comes to the scoring of the 5th set, Grand Slams have different rules. Tsitsipas broke early in the fourth, however, putting him in command of the match and he served out the match at 5-3 to book his spot in the final. It ultimately took a tiebreak to settle the opening set and, despite being pinged for a footfault, Tsitsipas stormed to a 6-2 lead before taking out the opener. The second set was broken open by some stunning tennis from the former French Open finalist, but blinked when up by a break in the final set and serving for the match.ĭespite holding two match points in the eventual tiebreak, Tsitsipas was outplayed by a braver Khachanov, who strung together four straight points at 5-6 to send the match to a fourth set. Tsitsipas won a seesawing opening set which saw both players broken twice in the opening nine games on Rod Laver Arena.

Australian tennis scores