Australian Open 2022, Quarter Finals, Tuesday, 26.01.2022
The top eight players at the Australian Open 2022 have been found! Novak Djokovic is not competing, Alexander Zverev has already been eliminated. So the field of favourites is led by other professionals.
From the beginning, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Jannik Sinner were considered secret favourites. Only one of the two will make it to the last four, because: The tableau wanted them to meet already in the quarter-finals!
Early on Tuesday morning German time, the Italian is slightly favoured by the bookmakers. Is this due to the superior performances for which Tsitsipas needed much longer? That’s exactly what I’m going to find out in my Sinner Tsitsipas tip!
The second quarter-final in a still young career, the first Down Under – Jannik Sinner makes it seem as if he wants to underline his strong 2021 already now. In Melbourne, he is incredibly consistent.
To be fair, of course, he hasn’t had a real top opponent yet. In the first round he defeated Joao Sousa, a few days later Steve Johnson. He won both without losing a set.
He dropped the only set in his 3rd round match against Taro Daniel 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1. His toughest opponent so far was Alex de Minaur in the round of 16, but Sinner didn’t even think about getting into trouble when he won 7-6, 6-3, 6-4.
He fended off seven of his opponent’s eight break chances. Now he could achieve one of the greatest successes of all and reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
He has lost two of three duels with Stefanos Tsitsipas, the most recent last year. But: All three matches were played on clay. On his debut on hard court, he goes in with odds of 1.70, while Tsitsipas comes in at 2.20.
Sebastian Baez and Benoit Paire took one each from him, while Taylor Fritz took two in the last 16. The 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 cost the 23-year-old a tremendous amount of power and showed how to play against him.
He gave away 15 break chances and was lucky that Fritz could only use two of them. The 48% on the second serve is also in need of improvement. If he wants to reach the semi-finals, he will have to improve.
He should know how to do that, as he made it to the top four in both 2019 and 2021. A year ago, he even came back from a 0:2 deficit against Rafael Nadal!
My Sinner Tsitsipas Tip
With Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas, arguably the future world’s best in tennis will meet. Both definitely have what it takes to reach the semi-finals and meet for the first time outside the red clay.
Tsitsipas has had some lengthy matches in Melbourne, especially against Fritz. Sinner had the somewhat easier opponents, but can also deliver tough games. My tip can therefore only be:
We’ll see at least four sets!
