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Patna : Fifth seed Stefanos Tsistsipas, 22, Greece, edged past World N0 267 Thanasi Kokkinakis, 24, Australia, in a five-set marathon at Melbourne Park, Australia, on February 11, 2021, to enter the 3rd round of Australian Open (AO) 2021. Tsitsipas beat Kokkinakis 6-7, 6-4, 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 in 2nd round winning 5 break points in the match. Kokkinakis did not win any break point in the match but he won two tiebreaks.
Tsitsipas, in all, 188 points during the match to 166 by the Australian. The Greek won 5 games in a row in the match to 3 by the Australian. Kokkinakis, however, hammered 23 Aces during the match to 17 by Tsitsipas. The Greek committed 10 double faults in the match to 8 by the Australian.
Tsitsipas, who had reached AO semi-finals in 2019 and French Open SFs in 2020, will face World No 95 Mikael Ymer, 22, Sweden, in third round on February 13, 2021. Ymer beat World No 141 Carlos Alcaraz Garfia, 17, Spain, in four-sets 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 in 2nd round on February 11, 2021. Both Garfia and Ymer won 8 break points each in the match.
World No 65 Feliciano Lopez, 39, Spain, too survived a five-set thriller to reach the AO 3rd round on February 11, 2021. beating World No 35 Lorenzo Sonego, 25, Italy, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 rallying back from two-sets down. Lopez fired 16 Aces during the match to 15 by the Italian. The Spainiard won 3 break points to 2 by the Italian. Lorenzo won 5 games in a row during the match to 3 by Lopez. Lopez, in all, won 149 points in the match to 146 points by the Italian.
The Spainirad will face 7th Andrey Rublev, 23, Russia, in 3rd round on February 13, 2021. World No 8 Rublev beat World No 74 Thiago Monteiro, 26, Brazil, in straight sdts 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 in 2nd round. Rublev hammered 16 Aces during the match to 10 by Monteiro. The Russian also won 2 break points to none by the Brazialin. Rublev also won 3 games in a row in the match. Rublev, in all, won 109 points to 94 by Monteiro.