Venue: <\/strong>Melbourne Park <\/span>Dates:<\/strong> 16-29 January<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n| Coverage: <\/strong>Commentary every day from 07:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra ‘Tennis Breakfast’ live from Melbourne, with selected live text commentaries and match reports on the BBC Sport website & app<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n | Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Jiri Lehecka in straight sets to set up an Australian Open semi-final with Karen Khachanov.<\/span><\/p>\n Greek third seed Tsitsipas reached his fourth Melbourne semi-final in five years with a 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 win.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lehecka, of the Czech Republic, had been one of the surprise packages of the tournament having beaten two top-12 seeds to make the quarter-finals.<\/span><\/p>\n The 21-year-old had previously never won a Grand Slam match.<\/span><\/p>\n Earlier on day nine, Russian Khachanov progressed to the final four of the Australia major for the first time when his quarter-final opponent Sebastian Korda was forced to retire with a wrist injury with the score at 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 3-0.<\/span><\/p>\n The other semi-final will be decided on Wednesday, when Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul contest an all-American quarter-final before nine-time champion Novak Djokovic faces Russian Andrey Rublev.<\/span><\/p>\n Battling wins over 11th seed Cameron Norrie and sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime had catapulted Lehecka into the spotlight over the past week, but the world number 71 looked nervy in the opening exchanges with Tsitsipas.<\/span><\/p>\n Tsitsipas, ranked fourth in the world, dominated the first set after breaking his opponent’s serve early on but was pushed hard by Lehecka throughout the second. Forced into a tie-break, Tsitsipas took control, racing into a 4-0 lead before comfortably seeing it out.<\/span><\/p>\n The 24-year-old faced further challenges in the third set when he saved three successive break points at 3-3, before making his move on Lehecka’s serve at 5-4 down to wrap up the win on his first match point.<\/span><\/p>\n “It was a fair dinkum kind of performance,” said Tsitsipas, who added he felt like the Australian Open was his home Grand Slam.<\/span><\/p>\n “It felt different this time than any other match, the most important thing is that I found a solution.<\/span><\/p>\n “It was a very difficult three-setter, one of the most difficult so far in the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n “Jiri has had a very good tournament, I wish him the best for the future because he’s a great player.”<\/span><\/p>\n Tsitsipas has never lost to semi-final opponent Khachanov in five meetings, and should he go all the way at the Australian Open and win a first Grand Slam title, he would become world number one.<\/span><\/p>\n In Tuesday’s earlier quarter-final, American Korda was growing into the match when he began to struggle with his right wrist, taking a medical timeout midway through the second set. <\/span><\/p>\n Visibly disappointed, he lost seven straight games on his return before retiring, walking over to shake Khachanov’s hand.<\/span><\/p>\n Korda, the son of 1998 champion Petr, then left the stadium to a standing ovation.<\/span><\/p>\n “Obviously it’s not the way you want to finish the match,” Khachanov said.<\/span><\/p>\n “Until a certain point it was very competitive. Sebastian beat one of my friends, Daniil [Medvedev] in three sets and [Hubert] Hurkacz in five. He’s playing great tennis.”<\/span><\/p>\n Olympic silver medallist Khachanov is only the 10th active male player to reach the last eight at all four majors and also reached the semi-finals of last year’s US Open.<\/span><\/p>\n He started strongly but failed to serve out the opener at 5-3 before taking his third set point of the eventual tie-break with a clinical backhand winner.<\/span><\/p>\n After a slow start Korda had grown more competitive but he faded badly after receiving treatment five games in to the second set.<\/span><\/p>\n The swift loss of the set followed – although Korda did create two break points as Khachanov briefly tightened up when serving for a 5-3 lead – but the decision was made for the American when he was only able to take a single point from the first three games of the third. <\/span><\/p>\n |
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