In a way, the victory over Roberto Bautista Agut was much more important for Stefanos Tsitsipas than the one against Roger Federer two days earlier.
Victory over the 20-time Grand Slam champion vindicated Tsitspas’ standing as the brightest young talent on tour, even if it came at the expense of his hero.
Victory over Bautista Agut would demonstrate the Federer result wasn’t a flash in the pan - and the Greek star demonstrated it superbly.
A semi-final clash against Rafael Nadal waits for the 20-year-old, and with it comes a slice of history for Tsitsipas not seen for nearly 12 years.
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Tsitsipas is the youngest semi-finalist in a Grand Slam since Novak Djokovic reached the final four at Flushing Meadows in 2007.
Should Tsitsipas reach Sunday’s final, he would be 59 days younger than Cyprus fan-favourite Marcos Baghdatis was when he battled his way to the final 13 years ago.
Up a set and a break in that final over Federer, we could have been calling Baghdatis a Grand Slam champion. However, it wasn’t to be, Federer grabbing his seventh Grand Slam crown from as many finals.
13 years later, and Federer has 20 major crowns - however, whether that number will increase remains for the gods to decide.
For Greek tennis fans - who have swamped on Melbourne Park, and will again do so on Thursday - only one god matters, with Tsitsipas flying the blue-white higher than any player from Greece has done before.
After defeating Matteo Berrettini in the first round, Tsitsipas became the first Greek man to win a main draw singles match at the tournament.
He’s now won five, and is into a major semi for the first time. It's something he expected to achieve in 2019 - just not this early.
One of @StefTsitsipas' 2019 goals was to reach a Grand Slam semifinal.
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 22, 2019
Just 22 days into the year, he already achieved it 👊#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/Dx2fZmHEaC
Now one win away from reaching the same mark Baghdatis did, Tsitsipas revealed he and the Cypriot were close to playing together, but on the same side of the court.
"I sent him a message one week ago asking him if he's going to play doubles, because we were going to playing doubles here. It was all arranged," Tsitsipas told reporters after the match.
"He loves quallies, but I was expecting he's going to stay to play. Then he texted me and said that he was actually in Cyprus. I had no clue, yeah, that we're not going to play doubles. We withdrew from doubles.
"I actually think it's a good idea. I will actually thank him later that he left to Cyprus. I think it definitely helped than having to stay and play doubles. Waste of energy."
Backing the Federer win up was the hard part, and Tsitsipas revealed it had had a major affect on him.
However, the reaction back home spurred him on - but he'll need more against Nadal.
Nadal, across his five matches so far in Melbourne, has spent 10 hours and 45 minutes on court.
Tsitsipas? 15 hours, 31 minutes. Nearly five. Hours. More.
"It was really tough. First night was tough to process. In the beginning was tough to fall asleep, to be honest with you,” Tsitsipas said on the Federer match.
"Slept less than six hours. Was worried about my next match, if I'm going to be able to get some good sleep the day before.
"Received a lot of messages, a lot of congrats from people, from celebrities back home, which I never thought they were watching tennis.
"Kind of felt like the whole thing has a big impact in the country.
"I did want to concentrate on my next match. I knew that win against Federer was important, played a huge role in my image, like who I am.
"But I knew that the biggest challenge was today's match, that I can prove myself once again."
