Chris O’Connell begins his Australian Open 2024 marketing campaign with a hard-fought victory in opposition to Chile’s Cristian Garin within the opening spherical.
Melbourne, Australia, 14 January 2024 | Jackson Mansell
Australian Christopher O’Connell has come from two-sets-to-one all the way down to defeat Chilean Cristian Garin in a four-hour, five-set epic.
In a seesawing battle, the world No.71 outlasted Garin 3-6 7-5 4-6 6-1 7-5 to progress to the second spherical of the Australian Open for a 3rd time.
Garin jumped out of the blocks within the opening set, dominating on serve to determine an early lead.
“It was fairly windy early on. He’s acquired such wonderful footwork and I feel he performed just a little bit higher within the wind than I did,” O’Connell mentioned.
“I used to be struggling simply to get set and hit high quality pictures.
“It’s fairly swirly on that court docket, it didn’t come from one course. I dropped again because the match went on, performed extra clay-court sort tennis and I feel that helped me just a little bit.”
When the world No.88 acquired the break to go up 3-2 within the second set, he appeared to be in cruise management.
Nevertheless, unforced errors and double faults proved expensive and helped O’Connell to interrupt again within the following recreation and achieve some much-needed momentum.
The Chilean had three break factors with the set locked at 4-all, nonetheless O’Connell would handle to retain serve. He would then discover a break when it mattered most to stage the match.
As he did early within the first set, Garin put early stress on the Australian’s serve within the third set.
The 29-year-old weathered the storm for essentially the most half, however Garin would finally capitalise on his sixth break level of the set. That buffer can be all the previous world No.17 wanted as he closed out the set 6-4.
It was all O’Connell within the fourth set, because the Australian took all three service video games from Garin to stage proceedings with ease. Unforced errors in large moments would show a difficulty once more, as O’Connell despatched the match right into a deciding set.
Up a break within the closing set, the New South Welshman had an opportunity to serve for the match however was unsuccessful as Garin broke again.
Simply when the 27-year-old had acquired the match again on serve, 4 unforced errors noticed O’Connell regain the break.
Regardless of a late scare from Garin, O’Connell didn’t cough up his second alternative to serve for the match and closed out a hard-fought victory in 4 hours and 21 minutes.
“I used to be tremendous assured I used to be simply going to serve it out,” O’Connell mentioned. “I began discovering rhythm in my serve, the wind died down – that mucked me up earlier.
“He jagged again a break after which I acquired a second alternative to serve it out and I by some means did it, despite the fact that I confronted a break level.”
O’Connell is about to face both sixteenth seed Ben Shelton or Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut within the second spherical.
Earlier as we speak, Aussie qualifier Dane Sweeny pushed world No.22 Francisco Cerundolo to 5 units in his Grand Slam main-draw debut.
“It could have been good to win, however simply that have was subsequent stage. By no means had something like that,” mentioned the 22-year-old after the three-hour, 23-minute battle.
“Undoubtedly issues to enhance on, but additionally a number of positives to take out of that and a number of confidence to take out of that, for positive.”
In the meantime, Italian Matteo Arnaldi tallied 57 winners to spoil Adam Walton’s main debut. The world No.41 recorded a 7-6(5) 6-2 6-4 victory in opposition to the 24-year-old Aussie.
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Aussies in motion – Australian Open
TODAY’S RESULTS
Males’s singles, first spherical
Chris O’Connell (AUS) d Cristian Garin (CHI) 3-6 7-5 4-6 6-1 7-5
[22] Francisco Cerundolo (ARG) d [Q] Dane Sweeny (AUS) 3-6 6-3 6-4 2-6 6-2
Daniel Elahi Galan (COL) d [WC] Jason Kubler (AUS) 2-6 6-3 7-6(3) 4-6 7-6(8)
Matteo Arnaldi (ITA) d [WC] Adam Walton (AUS) 7-6(5) 6-2 6-4
COMING UP
Males’s singles, first spherical
[10] Alex de Minaur (AUS) v Milos Raonic (CAN)
Alexei Popyrin (AUS) v [WC] Marc Polmans (AUS)
Max Purcell (AUS) v [Q] Mate Valkusz (HUN)
Jordan Thompson (AUS) v Aleksandar Vukic (AUS)
Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) v Sebastian Ofner (AUT)
Rinky Hijikata (AUS) v [24] Jan-Lennard Struff (GER)
[WC] James Duckworth (AUS) v Luca Van Assche (FRA)
[WC] James McCabe (AUS) v Alex Michelsen (USA)
[Q] Omar Jasika (AUS) v [9] Hubert Hurkacz (POL)
Males’s singles, second spherical
Chris O’Connell (AUS) v TBC
> VIEW: Australian Open 2024 males’s singles draw
Girls’s singles, first spherical
[WC] Kimberly Birrell (AUS) v [11] Jelena Ostapenko (LAT)
[WC] Olivia Gadecki (AUS) v Sloane Stephens (USA)
[WC] Daria Saville (AUS) v Magdalena Frech (POL)
[Q] Storm Hunter (AUS) v Sara Errani (ITA)
[WC] Taylah Preston (AUS) v [19] Elina Svitolina (UKR)
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) v Petra Martic (CRO)
> VIEW: Australian Open 2024 girls’s singles draw
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