Aussie wildcard Alexei Popyrin advanced at the Australian Open in a five set epic encounter that finished just past 2am Wednesday morning.
Popyrin recorded a 4-6 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 7-6(4) 6-1 victory against former world No.1-ranked junior Tseng Chun-Hsin in a late-night battle at John Cain Arena.
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There was only one break of serve across the first four sets, secured by world No.115 Tseng in the opening set.
Couple that with a start time of 9:37pm due to several cancellations because of the weather, the gruelling four-hour and 26-minute match was the longest of Popyrin’s career.
“I’m exhausted. That was a physical battle and a mental battle too,” an emotional Popyrin said.
“I’ve never played a match this late. I’ve never played a match this long.”
The 23-year-old wildcard had it all to do, finding himself down a two-sets, before he laid it on late in the match and broke his opponent’s serve on his 13th opportunity, and built a 3-0 lead in the final set.
Popyrin’s match should’ve started closer to 4pm on Court 3, if all had gone to plan, but due to rain it was was moved to John Cain Arena following compatriot Alex de Minaur’s easy win over another Taiwanese player, Yu Hsiou Hsu.
Match Highlights: Thanasi Kokkinakis v Alexei Popyrin
While the delay seemed to hamper his play early, the Aussie came on when he needed to and finished the match with 31 aces and 89 winners in total.
Popyrin’s efforts set up a second-round showdown with eighth-seeded American Taylor Fritz.
While the late finish was tough for players and spectators alike, it wasn’t quite as bad as last year’s match that saw Adrian Mannarino defeat Aslan Karatsev at 2:33am.
And then of course there was Lleyton Hewitt’s five-set clash against Marcos Baghdatis’ in 2008, that finished at 4:34am.
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