Tsitsips navigates a tricky 3rd set in Australian Open round one win over Halys

Stefanos Tsitsipas barely survives in the 3rd set to win the match against Quentin Halys in three sets 6-3 6-4 7-6(6) moving on at the Australian Open.

Stefanos Tsitsipas did really well to defeat a tricky challenger in Halys, especially since Tsitsipas barely managed to keep it in three sets. Djokovic faced Halys recently in Adelaide and saw how good he can be so this straight-sets win was important for Tsitsipas. Part of that is Tsitsipas' habit to complicate matches wasting energy needed for the later stages.

The start was a good one as Tsitsipas demonstrated pretty strong tennis overall. It's been the case since the start of the year. He served well and lost only four points on his serve and none after hitting his first serve. He used the only break point he had to take the set 6-3. The second set was rather comfortable for the Greek as well.

He won it 6-4, as Halys struggled to win points on his second serve. He was really strong behind his first but hit it only 64 % of the time. The Greek player had 12 winners in that set. The 3rd set was the most complicated one because Tsitsipas trailed in that one. He was actually up 2-0 at first but then lost 4 games in a row in one of his common drops of focus.

He battled back but faced 0-40 down 5-6 which gave Halys three consecutive set points. He saved all of them and forced a tiebreak but found himself down 1-4 in it. He battled back once again to win it 8-6. A good performance overall but he was very lucky in the final set.