5 native stars have bowed out of the Australian Open on a draining day of despair for the house hopes at Melbourne Park, with defeat particularly painful for Wimbledon doubles champion Max Purcell.
Whereas Thanasi Kokkinakis celebrated after belatedly wrapping up his win over Fabio FogniniPurcell et al Aleksandar Vukic fell quick after resuming their delayed matches on Wednesday.
With extra rain delaying play for an additional six hours on day three, the duo needed to endure one other anxious and prolonged wait earlier than resuming.
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Purcell and Vukic had their campaigns led to heartbreak.
When he lastly managed to get again on courtroom, Purcell had no time to settle in in opposition to Emil Ruusuvuori.
He was trailing the Finn by two units to at least one and getting into a do-or-die tiebreaker within the fourth after being unable to transform both of two set factors with Ruusuvuori serving at 5-4.
Purcell fended off three match factors within the breaker, earlier than fashioning two set factors of his personal, earlier than lastly succumbing 6-Four 3-6 4-6 8-6 (13-11) on his fifth match level.
Compounding Purcell’s ache was the Sydneysider’s resolution to not contest the doubles once more along with his Wimbledon champion accomplice Matt Ebden – after the pair misplaced final 12 months’s Australian Open remaining to Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios – to as a substitute focus all his power on the singles.
He’ll as a substitute sort out males’s doubles with countryman Jordan Thompson, who was additionally eradicated from singles within the first spherical, and blended with Canada’s Gaby Dabrowski this week.
Vukic was locked at one set all with fellow qualifier American Brandon Holt when play was stopped for the evening on Tuesday with the Australian trailing 4-2 within the third.
After dropping the third set, Vukic fought again to drive a decider, solely to exit 6-Four 1-6 6-Three 3-6 6-Three in a event opener stretching 5 units over two nights.
An encouraging summer season for Jason Kubler additionally got here to an finish on Wednesday evening with a spirited 6-Four 5-7 6-Four 6-2 second-round loss to 18th seed Karen Khachanov, the Russian 18th seed who beat Nick Kyrgios in final 12 months’s US Open quarter-finals.
John Millman and girls’s wildcard Olivia Gadecki had been two extra Australians caught up within the backlog of matches due to Melbourne’s fickle climate.
The pair suffered straight-sets defeats to Russian two-time Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev and Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk respectively.
A wild first set between Millman and Medvedev featured seven breaks of serve whereas a sequence of lengthy rallies all through the match left the latter fearing a five-set battle.
“Bodily for each of us, it was powerful,” Medvedev stated in his on-court interview.
“One second within the first set I (questioned) how I will deal with this. I used to be already fairly drained and simply needed to attempt to proceed.”
He added: “Generally I cramp and typically I am not sturdy sufficient to complete the matches, however this match I felt wonderful bodily.”
It wasn’t all easy crusing for seventh seed Medvedev on Margaret Courtroom Area, the place he had his serve damaged thrice by Millman within the first set.
However the Russian was in any other case strong on serve, sending down 10 aces to Millman’s none in a contest that lasted two hours and 19 minutes.
“It was a fantastic match. The rating within the second and third (units) does not mirror all the pieces that went on the courtroom,” Medvedev stated.
“First set he managed to interrupt me thrice. That is not that always that it occurs, so I should be just a little bit disenchanted with myself.
“However he performed wonderful, so huge credit score to John.”
Millman, who required a wildcard after falling to No.140 within the rankings, has twice been to the third spherical at his house slam – in 2016 and 2020.
Thrilling teenager Rinky Hijikata was the final Australian in motion on Wednesday evening.
However he dropped the primary two units to 3rd seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in precisely one hour.
– with 7NEWS
