Stefanos Tsitsipas news: Mats Wilander highlights key tactic that helped Greek to defeat Jannik Sinner

Australian Open
Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas at the net

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ decision to be aggressive played a significant role in his impressive victory against Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open, according to Mats Wilander.

The Greek produced arguably his best performance at this year’s hard-court Grand Slam as he steamrolled youngster Sinner 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the quarter-final on Wednesday.

There were no break point opportunities on the Tsitsipas serve while the fourth seed converted four out of four break points on the Sinner serve. He also dominated most points with his aggressive style.

Seven-time Grand Slam winner Wilander says the Greek’s decision to play the ball as early as possible was a key factor in his win.

“I think it’s the best Stefanos has played so far in this tournament,” he told the Eurosport Cube. “His tactics were very clear from the beginning, and his ball-striking was perfect.

“Even though he faced a tricky situation when the roof was closed, he showed a lot of experience. I thought it was going to be a really close match – in fact, I was thinking Sinner had a really good chance, and he had no chance in my eyes.

“I think Stefanos’ game plan in every match is very similar, he is trying to take the ball as early as possible, take it on the rise, come forward. He was so aggressive, he took over 60% of his shots on the rise, which is just unbelievable.”

Wilander also likened Tsitsipas’ big-match temperament to that of 20-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal.

The former world No 1 added: “Tsitsipas played an amazing match to me, I was completely surprised. Stefanos is going to be a great ‘big-match’ player, he is always going to show up, just like Rafa Nadal.

“Yes, there will be a match when Rafa has not played well, but he is still a great ‘big-match’ player. So I think for Tsitsipas, it’s the same. Some days he is going to play bad and lose, but he is going to be there and he is going to try all of these different things.

“On all four surfaces, he is going to find different ways of changing things around. It is not easy, you have to beat him off the court because he is not going to roll over on his own.”

Jannik Sinner Mats Wilander Stefanos Tsitsipas

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