| Venue: Melbourne Park Dates: 16-29 January |
| Coverage: Commentary every day from 07:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra ‘Tennis Breakfast’ live from Melbourne, with selected live text commentaries and match reports on the BBC Sport website & app |
Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Jiri Lehecka in straight sets to set up an Australian Open semi-final with Karen Khachanov.
Greek third seed Tsitsipas reached his fourth Melbourne semi-final in five years with a 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 win.
Lehecka, of the Czech Republic, had been one of the surprise packages of the tournament having beaten two top-12 seeds to make the quarter-finals.
The 21-year-old had previously never won a Grand Slam match.
Earlier on day nine, Russian Khachanov progressed to the final four of the Australia major for the first time when his quarter-final opponent Sebastian Korda was forced to retire with a wrist injury with the score at 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 3-0.
The other semi-final will be decided on Wednesday, when Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul contest an all-American quarter-final before nine-time champion Novak Djokovic faces Russian Andrey Rublev.
‘A fair dinkum performance’
Battling wins over 11th seed Cameron Norrie and sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime had catapulted Lehecka into the spotlight over the past week, but the world number 71 looked nervy in the opening exchanges with Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas, ranked fourth in the world, dominated the first set after breaking his opponent’s serve early on but was pushed hard by Lehecka throughout the second. Forced into a tie-break, Tsitsipas took control, racing into a 4-0 lead before comfortably seeing it out.
The 24-year-old faced further challenges in the third set when he saved three successive break points at 3-3, before making his move on Lehecka’s serve at 5-4 down to wrap up the win on his first match point.
“It was a fair dinkum kind of performance,” said Tsitsipas, who added he felt like the Australian Open was his home Grand Slam.
“It felt different this time than any other match, the most important thing is that I found a solution.
“It was a very difficult three-setter, one of the most difficult so far in the tournament.
“Jiri has had a very good tournament, I wish him the best for the future because he’s a great player.”
Tsitsipas has never lost to semi-final opponent Khachanov in five meetings, and should he go all the way at the Australian Open and win a first Grand Slam title, he would become world number one.
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