(CNN)Stefanos Tsitsipas had to dig deep to beat Benoit Paire in the third round of the Australian Open – so deep that immediately after his win he didn’t even realize the match was over.
With three match points, Paire could only net his forehand, meaning Tsitsipas had advanced to the fourth round of the Grand Slam with a 6-3 7-5 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 win.
But while the fans rose to applaud Tsitsipas and instead of rushing to the net to celebrate, the fourth-seeded Greek headed to the back of the pitch as if expecting another service game.
The referee’s announcement of his victory sparked the realization that he had won and he quickly turned, with surprise on his face, to walk to the net to shake Paire’s hand and then begin a proper celebration of his victory .
Tsitsipas, a two-time Melbourne semi-finalist, was nothing but compliments to Paire after their hard-fought encounter.
“I’m pretty happy about the win. Benoit is one of the greatest talents in our game, he has a lot of feeling for the game,” said Tsitsipas.
“It was a very important win for me today and also something very special to play in this arena and to share that with the crowd.”
Tsitsipas plays Taylor Fritz in the next round after the American beat Roberto Bautista Agut in five sets on Saturday.
Elsewhere, world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev also reached the fourth round of the Australian Open with a clear win over Botic van de Zandschulp.
It took the 2021 finalist an hour and 55 minutes to defeat the Dutchman 6-4 6-4 6-2.
Medvedev, the US Open champion, meets American Maxime Cressy in the round of 16.
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The 25-year-old Russian is the highest-ranked player still in the draw and has looked impressive in the early stages of the tournament.
“Of course I don’t want to stop [at] Round four, but I’m really happy,” Medvedev said afterwards.
“(In a) Grand Slam, every round is very tough and even today, if the result doesn’t show that, I feel like it was a closer game than the result.”
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