Replay of Tsitsipas-Federer AO 2019 on TC.

I remember not even getting up for this match (wouldn’t dream of missing it if it were to happen again at AO) and just being shocked at the result.

The 0/12 stat has become the focus of the match, but Tsitsipas...

...played well in all the tiebreaks, too. He had a couple nervy moments in the first, but played flawlessly in the second and did really well to win the fourth set tiebreak from 4-5 down (though Federer did make a pretty bad forehand error at 5-all).

Tsitsipas has improved since this match. He’s recorded an additional win over Federer, plus one over Nadal on clay (!) and beaten Djokovic in Shanghai. He won the World Tour Finals last year.

But he’s yet to improve his best result at a major since (SF).

In fact, he wasn’t even able to equal it until Roland-Garros this year.

In a way, his progress has resembled that of the NextGen. Observable improvement over the past couple years, but not enough headway in the tournaments that matter the most: majors.

I’m excited to see what AO 2021 holds for Stef (and Federer, for that matter). In 2020, Tsitsipas was straight-setted by Raonic in the third round. I still don’t think he has the game to make the final, but another SF berth could be on the cards. We’ll see.