Stefanos Tsitsipas may well have defeated Benoit Paire at the Australian Open on Saturday… but it took him a while to realise he’d done so.
The No.4 seed recorded a 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4 victory on Rod Laver Arena against the world No.56 to reach the fourth round.
An exciting match ended in bizarre circumstances though as Tsitsipas, leading 5-4 in the fourth set, generated a 0-40 lead.
A wayward shot from the Frenchman gifted Tsitsipas the set and the match but the Greek celebrated as if he’d only broken his opponent, seemingly heading to his corner to pick up his towel as Paire walked towards the net.
As the crowd rose to their feet and the umpire announced it was game, set and match, Tsitsipas finally realised he’d won and jogged over towards a less than impressed Paire waiting at the net.
‘Stef doesn’t know he’s won!,’ Mark Petchey said on commentary.
‘Guys that was wild, Stefanos literally did not know that he had won the match there,’ one of his co-commentators added.
‘It was funny because Benoit was staring him down, it looked like he (Tsitsipas) was going to go get his towel before he came to shake hands and Benoit actually looked a little irritated like, “come shake hands, man, what are you doing?”
‘Then he turned around and saw Benoit at the net and realised what was happening.’
The 23-year-old will now face American 20th seed Taylor Fritz for a place in the quarter-finals.
‘I’ve shared the court with Taylor since we grew up and he’s improved a lot,’ Tsitsipas said.
‘I will take the match very seriously and try to bring the best out in my game. Hopefully the crowd will support me and I can do my job.’
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