Alex de Minaur reaches Australian Open third round, Thanasi Kokkinakis loses to Stefanos Tsitsipas in tournament’s longest match

Thanasi Kokkinakis’s return to the main tennis scene has been ended by fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a second-round five-setter that lasted greater than 4 and a half hours, whereas compatriot Alex de Minaur rushed into the third spherical.

De Minaur, Australia’s top-ranked male participant, beat Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 after Kokkinakis performed out the longest match of the event to date.

On the comeback path from repeated accidents and sickness, the world number 267 scored his first Australian Open win since 2015 earlier this week, however fell to Tsitsipas in 5 units — 6-7(5/7), 6-4, 6-1, 6-7(5/7), 6-4.

“Thanasi is a superb competitor and an incredible fighter,” Tsitsipas mentioned.

“He is an incredible server, has all of the weapons from the baseline; regardless of the problem of the match, I actually loved being out right here exhibiting the world some actually high-quality tennis.”

Enjoying simply his fourth main from the previous 14 editions, the Australian threatened a large upset early by profitable the primary set in a tie break, however Tsitsipas reasserted his dominance with energy and precision off each wings over the subsequent three units.

However Kokkinakis, regardless of being in a seemingly unattainable place whereas serving at 4-5 within the fourth, refused to be put away as he saved a match level and gained a six-deuce recreation, letting out a scream of aid after attending to 5-5.

Tsitsipas held to like within the subsequent recreation however couldn’t get on prime of Kokkinakis’s serve, with one other love maintain sending the match to a fourth-set tie break.

Kokkinakis jumped out to a 5-1 lead within the breaker, Tsitsipas hit again to succeed in 5-5, earlier than Kokkinakis took the set to drive a deciding fifth.

“Give me one thing now,” he referred to as into the group, which included Nick Kyrgios, with whom Kokkinakis was speculated to be taking part in doubles within the evening session.

As a substitute he was locked in a battle with probably the greatest gamers on this planet, and nothing was coming straightforward towards the two-time main semi-finalist.

Kokkinakis instantly needed to combat off two break factors within the first recreation of the decider, however the final check got here two video games later.

At 1-1, the third recreation of the set lasted greater than 12 minutes and featured seven deuces and two Tsitsipas break factors. However once more Kokkinakis was as much as the duty, grimacing by some obvious leg ache as he rescued one more recreation from the brink.

The story was not the identical two video games later, as Tsitsipas lastly made good on his risk to interrupt the Kokkinakis serve, and managed to hold that momentum by to the tip of the match.

De Minaur to face fiery Fognini as extra Aussie wildcards knocked out

De Minaur’s match towards Cuevas was much less of a scrap, though he did must dig deep within the third and last set.

Having gained the primary two units with out a lot ado, he was given a scare within the third when Cuevas broke serve for the primary time within the match.

It gave him a right away probability to serve for the set at 5-3, however de Minaur didn’t enable him a take a look at a set level, instantly breaking again and rattling off 4 successive video games to stitch up the match.

He’ll meet Italian Fabio Fognini within the third spherical, coming off a marathon five-set match, finally beating compatriot Salvatore Caruso 4-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(14/12).

Earlier, Aussie wildcard Alexei Popyrin was knocked out after his personal gruelling five-set match, this time ending in defeat to South African Lloyd Harris.

Popyrin was coming off an almost four-hour upset of 13th seed David Goffin when he bumped into world quantity 91 Harris on Thursday afternoon, dropping 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3.

The pair went set for set all through the match, however Popyrin’s virtually seven hours on court docket by the primary two rounds began to indicate with some fatigue late within the decider.

He fought by six deuces at 2-3 within the fifth set, however Harris finally broke on his fourth probability of the sport.

Popyrin slowly trudged to his bag to get a brand new racket and it was apparent he didn’t have the power left in his legs to combat again once more.

Harris held serve to like to maneuver to 5-2 and conserved power by the subsequent recreation earlier than serving out the match simply because the clock ticked over into the fourth hour of the match.

The second-round exit is definitely 113th-ranked Popyrin’s worst end in Melbourne since 2018, having reached the third round for the previous two years, whereas Harris has reached the third spherical of a slam for the primary time.

The event of fellow Australian wildcard Chris O’Connell ended in additional easy vogue, dropping to Moldova’s Radu Albot 6-2, 7-5, 7-6(10/8), whereas Sam Stosur’s match was even faster, with US world quantity 61 Jessica Pegula profitable 6-0, 6-1 in simply 50 minutes.