Stefanos Tsitsipas staved off Benoit Paire to reach the Australian Open fourth round on Saturday with a tough 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-4 win but appeared not to realise the game was over after converting match point.
Paire dunked a forehand into the net on the first of three match points when serving to stay in the match, but fourth seed Tsitsipas walked to the back of the court rather than approach the net.
The Greek turned around at the baseline with a look of surprise on his face, before walking forward to acknowledge Paire.
"I'm pretty glad about that win, Benoit is someone I say is one of the biggest stars in our game," said Tsitsipas, a former semifinalist at Melbourne Park.
Having held Paire at bay at Rod Laver Arena, the Greek crumbled in the third set tiebreak to let the Frenchman back into the match.
Paire kept in touch to 4-4 in the fourth set before conceding the match points with a double-fault.
Tsitsipas will meet American Taylor Fritz for a place in the quarterfinals.
Cilic upsets No. 5 Rublev
Former U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic upset No. 5-seeded Andrey Rublev to reach the fourth round.
The 33-year-old Cilic, who won the 2014 U.S. Open title and was a runner-up to Roger Federer in Australia in 2018, beat Rublev 7-5, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 in the last match completed on Day 6 of the year’s first Grand Slam tournament.
He went into the encounter with just one win in his previous 15 matches against Top 10 players and had lost his previous four head-to-heads against Rublev, but was dominant from the start.
Cilic will next play No. 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime, who won 14 of the last 16 games in his 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 third-round win over No. 24 Dan Evans
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