Australian Open: Tsitsipas struggles to get through to third round

The Greek player had to fight hard to overcome the unseeded Argentine

One needs to be prepared for a good fight throughout all the rounds of a Grand Slam tennis tournament. Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas learned this the hard way on Thursday, when he struggled to get over the finish line in his second round match against Argentina's Sebastian Baez at the 2022 Australian Open.

Tsitsipas needed a hard-fought four sets to make it through to the third round in front of a limited crowd at the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne Park. The 23-year-old wrapped up the lengthy match in three hours, 22 minutes, but he looked to be in real danger of facing an upset in the early stages of the match.

Tsitsipas won the first set but only by a slight advantage after a tie-break. The second set was just as tight, but Baez was the one who came out on top. At this point, the two-time Australian Open semi-finalist looked uncomfortable on court, and it seemed like the Argentine had found a way to keep up with the much higher-ranked player. However, after a short medical timeout where his legs were massaged on-court by a physio, Baez was no longer able to keep up the same intensity in the final two sets. The match ended with a 7-6 (7-1) 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-4 scoreline, with the Greek star happy to have cleared the hurdle.

In the end, Tsitsipas was able to take advantage of his superior fitness level, and shot 44 winners and served 12 aces en route to the win. He will be facing Frenchman Benoit Pare in the next round, who staged a stunning upset over Grigor Dimitrov.

Elsewhere in the tournament, fifth seed Andrey Rublev is going strong and is yet to drop a set. He will be facing Marin Cilic in the next round. Australian fans are happy to see 22-year-old Alex de Minaur also through, with Nick Kyrgios currently on court against Daniil Medvedev.