American Taylor Fritz is looking for his first major quarterfinal, but he will need to get past Stefanos Tsitsipas on Monday to do it at the 2022 Australian Open. Crowd favorite Alex de Minaur will also be in action against Jannik Sinner.
(4) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. (20) Taylor Fritz
Tsitsipas made his first Slam final in 2021 at the French Open, where he lost a five-set heartbreaker to Novak Djokovic. The rest of the season featured relative disappointment and some controversy due to alleged gamesmanship surrounding the timing of his bathroom breaks. He went down to Carlos Alcaraz in the third round of the U.S. Open.
The world No. 4 was forced to withdraw from the Nitto ATP Finals with an elbow injury and then had surgery on it during the offseason. It seems to be okay so far this week, but he was slightly off in his third-round match against Benoit Paire. Notably, Tsitsipas lost track of the score and didn’t realize that the break of serve he secured with Paire serving at 4-5 in the fourth actually won him the match.
Fritz is going to have his chances at the upset on Monday. The American has already produced the best slam performance of his career in Melbourne. A win would put him in the quarterfinals. Fritz scored a tight five-set win over Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round, so fatigue may be a factor. This could be another close one. Fritz is 0-2 against Tsitsipas, but the Greek hasn’t been at his best of late.
Cheryl pick: Tsitsipas in 5
Ricky pick: Fritz in 5
(11) Jannik Sinner vs. (32) Alex de Minaur
This fourth-round encounter is a rematch of the 2019 NextGen ATP Finals championship match. Sinner defeated de Minaur in that encounter in straight sets. The Italian also won their meeting at the indoor tournament in Sofia in 2020.
De Minaur has benefitted from a favorable draw in Melbourne so far. Sinner will be a much more challenging opponent than Pablo Andujar, whom the Aussie beat in the third round. De Minaur sits at 42nd in the world. He had a poor end to the 2021 season, but he came into Melbourne with a 2-1 match record in 2022 thanks to pair of matches he won for Team Australia at the ATP Cup.
Sinner managed to slide in as an alternate at the 2021 ATP Nitto Finals. He sits at No. 10 in the world. Sinner has quietly made his way through the draw and he also won all three of his matches at the ATP Cup, so he has a perfect 6-0 record in 2022 so far.
With de Minaur playing in front of the home crowd, the Aussie is likely to get some help keeping this one competitive. But expect Sinner to come through.
Cheryl pick: Sinner in 4
Ricky pick: Sinner in 5
WWW?
Fritz in 5
Sinner in 4
The crowd could make it 5 but Sinner has proven he’s quite resilient.
FAA 3-2
Medvedev 3-0
Look out everyone, Sinner’s coming! So slight where does he get that power from?
I love to watch sinner. He swings so easy off both wings
Tsitsipas won, incredible. That match was on Fritz’s racquet, so that’s a tough loss. He still needs to work on the intangibles because that’s what separates the top players from the rest.