By Chris Oddo | Wednesday January 1, 2018

Stefanos Tsitsipas kicked off his 2019 regular season with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Argentina’s Guido Andreozzi, setting up a first-time meeting with Italy’s Andreas Seppi.

Seppi defeated Slovakia’s Martin Klizan, 7-6(2), 6-2.

Tsitsipas was fast out of the blocks and dropped just five points on serve in the opening set. He won four straight points from 30-0 down to break for 2-0, which was all the cushion he would need in the first set.

Tsitsipas quickly opened up a double-break lead in the second set and stretched it to 4-0 and 5-1 before he dropped three straight games to let Andreozzi back in the contest.

Andreozzi saved a pair of match points while serving at 3-5, and another two with Tsitsipas serving for the match at 5-4, but the Greek stopped the rot and converted his fifth with a crisp forehand volley winner to seal the victory in 74 minutes.

The World No.15 is setting his sights on a Top 10 ranking, a Grand Slam semifinal and reaching the Nitto ATP Finals in 2019, and many feel he has the potential to achieve those goals.

The 20-year-old is playing as the top seed for the first time in his career at Sydney.

Australia’s Alex de Minaur kept his strong tennis up on Wednesday as well. The Aussie eased past American Reilly Opelka 6-4, 7-6(5) to book a quarterfinal clash against his childhood friend Jordan Thompson. De Minaur withstood 17 aces and converted one of seven break points while never facing a break point on his serve.

Yoshihito Nishioka (d. Rublev), Diego Schwartzman (d. Garcia-Lopez) and John Millman (d. Fucsovics) also advanced on Wednesday at Sydney.