Steely-eyed Stefanos Tsitsipas is feeling no stress, solely love, as he zeros in on “home grand slam” glory on the Australian Open.
The world No.4 and highest-ranked man left within the singles draw, Tsitsipas takes on unseeded Czech Jiri Lehecka on Tuesday for a spot within the Melbourne Park semi-finals for a fourth time.
Once once more thriving in an setting he compares to the Athenian Riviera the place he grew up, the Greek famous person is unbeaten in eight matches since arriving in Australia at Christmas for the season-opening United Cup.
The third seed was pressured to lift his recreation to outlive a fierce five-set fourth-round battle with Italian younger gun Jannik Sinner and believes the important thing to cracking his main title duck after a sequence of close to misses is solely protecting his head down and eyes on the ball.
“I play my game. Titles come if I play good. That takes care of itself, I think. If you’re able to play the best you can produce on the court, I feel like the rest just follows naturally. It’s a natural flow of things,” Tsitsipas mentioned.
“Putting pressure on yourself, we’re all dealing with pressure when we’re playing.
“For us, we’re on the market on a unique race each single time, a race with completely different situations, a race with a unique participant by our facet. That’s, I believe, one thing that the majority gamers are targeted at.
“I wouldn’t say too many players think of future events too much because tennis is a sport in which you have to stay present, otherwise if your mind wanders around, creates sort of scenarios, situations, that’s not really how you can play I think and peak in your performance.”
Lehecka has by no means beforehand ventured past the primary spherical at a slam.
But after taking out three seeds, together with world No.7 Felix Auger-Aliassime in spherical 4, the world No.71 shapes as a hazard man for Tsitsipas.
Still, Tsitsipas is intent on staying in his lane and as soon as once more drawing vitality from the Rod Laver Arena crowd that makes the 2021 French Open runner-up really feel at house.
“Wherever I look. I see Greek faces,” he mentioned.
“I see Greek people speaking Greek. Of course, it’s very important when you’re far away from home to have that sort of feeling, to connect even more with the culture that you’re at.
“It feels very welcoming if you’re in a position to stroll round and really feel that. It’s for positive my house slam, I might contemplate that, sure, as a result of Melbourne is the second-biggest metropolis after Athens with the most important Greek inhabitants. I might contemplate it my house slam.
“The French people have Roland Garros, the Brits have Wimbledon, the Americans have US Open. For me it’s the Australian Open.”
The winner will play both Russian world No.20 Karen Khachanov or rising American Sebastian Korda on Friday for a spot within the Open title match.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
