Watch: Stefanos Tsitsipas comes to the rescue of ball girl during his 4R match against Taylor Fritz at the 2022 Australian Open
Stefanos Tsitsipas booked his place in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Australian Open with a hard-fought 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Taylor Fritz in the fourth round. In addition to winning the match, the World No. 4 also won the hearts of the spectators at Rod Laver Arena by coming to the aid of one of the ball kids.
During his first service game in the fifth set, the ball girl approached Tsitsipas to feed him balls for his serve. Upon seeing something on the ground, the girl proceeded to remove the obstruction from the court.
The ball girl got scared of the bug. Stefanos Tsitsipas to the rescue. He's great with the kids, pt 254.
#AusOpen https://t.co/Fp80mETRJg
But as soon as she realized that it was a critter, the ball girl got scared and hesitated to pick it up. Thankfully, the Greek came to her rescue. Tsitsipas picked it up, placed it on his racquet and safely tossed it off near the side boardings.
The fifth seed's actions, who is coincidentally a former ball kid himself, prompted the girl to flash a grateful smile, resulting in a heartwarming moment in the middle of a heated encounter.
Stefanos Tsitsipas faces Jannik Sinner in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Australian Open
Stefanos Tsitsipas has a chance to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open for the second year in a row. But before he can achieve that, the World No. 4 needs to beat Jannik Sinner in his quarterfinal fixture at the 2022 Australian Open.
The match against Taylor Fritz was an important confidence-boosting victory for the Greek. He had to claw his way back twice from a one-set deficit against the American and Tsitsipas survived the pressure points in the match with flying colors.
No.4 @steftsitsipas fights back to beat @Taylor_Fritz97 4-6 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-4 in 3h23m to reach #AusOpen QF 
@AustralianOpen Tsitsipas comes back!
🇬🇷 No.4 @steftsitsipas fights back to beat @Taylor_Fritz97 4-6 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-4 in 3h23m to reach #AusOpen QF 🔥
📹 @AustralianOpen
https://t.co/yZKDG0AS4C
But against Jannik Sinner, the 23-year-old faces a much tougher and trickier opponent. The Italian defeated Alex de Minaur 7-6(3), 6-3, 6-4 in straight sets in front of his home crowd to book a place in his second ever Grand Slam quarterfinal.
20-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner makes impressively quick & incisive work of his fourth-round match with the last Australian man in the Australian Open singles: Alex de Minaur
7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-4
Tsitsipas or Fritz next
Don't think anyone will want to play him
#getty https://t.co/5o8MiKOVB4
The 11th seed has lost only one set in the tournament so far -- the second set against Taro Daniel in the third round. Another advantage for the 20-year old is that he has spent almost three fewer hours (546 minutes) than Tsitsipas (729 minutes) on the tennis court since the beginning of the 2022 Australian Open.
When the pair meet on Wednesday, Sinner will be a far better rested player. Tsitsipas currently leads the head-to-head against Sinner 2-1, but they have never faced each other at a Grand Slam. More importantly, all three meetings have come on claycourts.
Hardcourts are Sinner's preferred playing surface and also the surface where he has the best win percentage of his career (70%). Sinner has a real chance against the Greek whereas Stefanos Tsitsipas has the experience of playing in big matches under his belt, making it an enticing encounter to look forward to.