If such a thing is possible for someone with obvious box office appeal in a city with a massive and sports-mad Greek diaspora, Stefanos Tsitsipas has quietly made his way into the last eight at Melbourne Park.

After undergoing elbow surgery in November, Tsitsipas dropped his opening match at the ATP Cup on arrival down under in early January to Diego Schwartzman.

At that point, the Greek world No.4 was unsure if he would even make it to the Australian Open.

But things have been on the up and up ever since for Tsitsipas, who reached his first major final at last year's French Open before going down in five tight sets to Novak Djokovic.

The 23-year-old was taken to five sets by American Tyler Fritz in the round of 16 but is now just one win away from a third appearance in the Open semis in the past four years.

Standing in his way in the quarter-finals is Italian sensation Jannik Sinner, who outclassed the host nation's last man standing Alex de Minaur in straight sets in the fourth round.

"So far I have been doing what I do best, fighting in every single match and giving my soul out there," said the fourth-seeded Tsitsipas.

"I don't like making any predictions, and I usually get them wrong, simply because I'm too concentrated on what I am doing and not so much on others.

"So I would predict that I'm headed towards the right direction and things look good for me so far.

"With the right mindset and with the right attitude and with the right development throughout the tournament, my chances are pretty good."

Sinner, 20, is through to his second major quarter-final, having reached the same stage at the 2020 French Open only to run headlong into claycourt king Rafael Nadal.

The Italian 11th seed won four tour-level titles last year and is unbeaten in seven matches this year at the ATP Cup in Sydney and the Australian Open.

Tsitsipas leads their head-to-head rivalry 2-1, with all three previous matches between the pair taking place on clay.

The winner will play either tournament favourite Daniil Medvedev or Canadian No.9 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime for a place in Sunday's final.