Tennis
2024-01-21 - Taylor Fritz vs Stefanos Tsitsipas
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis : Australian Open Fourth Round
Sunday 21st January 2024 - Scheduled 1pm
2am (British Time)
Preview
Reaching back to back Quarter Finals at Grand Slam events for the first time may give Taylor Fritz plenty of confidence to take into the rest of the calendar year. This may not sound like the biggest achievement for someone who has long led the way for American men's tennis, but Taylor Fritz has struggled to put it together in the best of five set format.
The Australian Open has been a case of what might have been- Taylor Fritz lost to eventual winner Novak Djokovic in 2021 in the Third Round, but was the stronger player in the five set defeat. A year later he was beaten in the Fifth Set by Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Fourth Round and it is the Greek player who stands in his way again.
It has been a decent tournament for Stefanos Tsitsipas who has tended to play his best tennis in the first half of the season. He has reached eight Quarter Finals and all of those have been either at the Australian Open or French Open, while Tsitsipas has only made the second week twice in all of his appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open combined.
Stefanos Tsitsipas will always get a lot of support in Melbourne from the local Greek community and he has used that to fuel him to three Semi Finals and one Final at the Australian Open. Twelve months he came up short against Novak Djokovic, like many others, and the three wins on the board in the tournament will have given him plenty of confidence.
He was perhaps a little fortunate to see off Jordan Thompson, but the other two wins have been largely stress-free and the experiences of winning big matches in Melbourne may give him the edge over Taylor Fritz. The fact that Stefanos Tsitsipas has won three of the four previous matches against Fritz, including one here, will increase his belief and he has yet to be beaten on a hard court by this opponent.
Of course Taylor Fritz should believe in his own ability having really been the better player in the five set loss to Tsitsipas here, while he beat this opponent on his favoured clay courts in Monte Carlo last year. The two losses were very early in the career and the American has dominated his last two opponents in the draw after a tough opener when Taylor Fritz needed to go the distance.
Playing against top 10 Ranked opponents on the surface has been difficult for Taylor Fritz over the last year, but this is a decent enough match up for him.
Much depends on serving well and putting Stefanos Tsitsipas under pressure as Jordan Thompson did in the Second Round and we have seen enough from Taylor Fritz to believe he can do that. That was key to pushing Tsitsipas all the way in their previous Australian Open match, although winning will mean Taylor Fritz has been stronger when the Break Points come his way.
He was wasteful in the Third Round win and cannot afford to do that against the stronger players on the Tour.
Taylor Fritz has had the edge when it comes to the return numbers on the hard courts, but this should be another tight, competitive match between the two players.
The chances should largely fall in favour of Taylor Fritz and he may have a bit too much for Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has only just returned after injury. Jordan Thompson showed the blueprint for a big server to beat Tsitsipas, but Taylor Fritz has a bit more quality in his all around tennis compared with the Australian and that can see the lower Ranked player move into the last eight.
Prediction
Look for the underdog to come out on top, even if Taylor Fritz is not nearly as experienced at winning big matches in Melbourne as Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Pick :
Taylor Fritz 3-2 Stefanos Tsitsipas
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll back Taylor Fritz to Win at 2.30 with Bet365
