Tsitsipas first Greek in 83 years to reach Roland Garros last 16

AFP  |  Paris 

became the first Greek in 83 years to reach the second week at on Saturday as he survived a scare in the third round against

The sixth seed led by two sets overnight, with the match suspended at 5-5 in the third due to darkness at 9:52 p.m. local time, and saw Serbia's Krajinovic launch a comeback.

Tsitsipas lost the set in a tie-break but sealed a 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (8/6) success on Court Philippe Chatrier after overturning a 5-3 deficit and saving a set point in the fourth.

The 20-year-old will take on either former champion or for a place in his second Grand Slam quarter-final, after their match was also suspended on Friday evening.

"It's really tricky when you come back after a day. It's unusual, you don't do it that often," said Tsitsipas.

"It was important I saved those set points. Closing in the fourth set, it's important to save " The last Greek to reach the second week at was Lazaros Stalios in 1936.

Tsitsipas, who stunned en route to semi-finals earlier this year, had battled back from 5-2 down in the third set to keep his hopes of a straight-sets win alive.

World number 60 Krajinovic has good memories of the French capital, though, having reached the Masters final in 2017, and forced a fourth set in a high-quality tie-break.

He looked likely to take the match into a decider when Tsitsipas made back-to-back double faults to be broken in the seventh game, but Krajinovic played a dreadful game when serving for the set and was broken to love.

Tsitsipas took full advantage, forcing another breaker, in which he sealed victory after saving a set point on his first match point.

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First Published: Sat, June 01 2019. 18:05 IST