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Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his first Australian Open final with victory over Karen Khachanov in Melbourne on Friday.
Tsitsipas suffered a wobble in the third set but he responded in style to wrap up a 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 victory at Rod Laver Arena.
The 24-year-old immediately remembered watching Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis reach the final here back in 2006, saying: “I dreamed as a child that maybe one day I would get to play on this field and compete with the best players in the world. and watch it on TV and cheer him on.”
Tsitsipas will be number 1 in the world if he wins the title on Sunday, and he added: “I like that number. It’s a childhood dream to be number 1 in the world. I’m close and I’m happy that it’s coming to Australia, a place. important to me. Let’s go, let’s go.”
The third seed has been a man on a mission all fortnight, having only been bothered by Jannik Dosa in the fourth round so far, and looked set to cruise into the final when he stepped up to serve for a straight-set victory.
But Russia’s Khachanov held on, breaking Tsitsipas and then saving two match points in a third-set tie-break before Greece finally prevailed in three hours and 21 minutes.
Tsitsipas has reached the last four in the past three years at Melbourne Park without advancing, losing in 2019 to Rafael Nadal and in 2021 and 2022 to Daniil Medvedev.
However, he will not be denied this time, and will now aim to go one better than his previous slam final at the French Open in 2021, when he led Novak Djokovic from two sets to one, only to be beaten in the end.
He may find Serbia on the other side of the net again but he will believe that if he can show the same form produced for most of this contest, he can have a chance to pull off an upset.
Tsitsipas will have to avoid the same lapses that Djokovic faced, though, after also failing to serve out the opening set.
After breaking to lead 5-3, Tsitsipas played a poor game to drop serve and then ran into trouble at 5-5 after a second fault when a second fault caused him to lose his first serve.
He recovered to catch, though, and played the perfect tie-break to go in front.
Tsitsipas, who had won all five of his previous matches against Khachanov, was also the better player in the second set, eventually breaking in the penultimate game, and he looked set for a 5-4 match victory in the third.
Khachanov rallied, though, breaking back and then producing two big forehand winners as Tsitsipas moved 6-4 ahead in the tie-break.
Tsitsipas looked rattled and drove a forehand long to hand the set to Khachanov, but he quickly rallied with a break at the start of the fourth round and this time he held.
The result meant a second semi-final exit with a slam for Khachanov, who was greeted by some fans waving Armenian flags after public support for the breakaway Artsakh region.
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