Milos Raonic’s return to Grand Slam tennis was cut short by an inspired performance from world No.86 Lukas Lacko, who stunned the former world No.3 over four sets for a 6-7(5) 7-5 6-4 7-6(4) victory.
The Canadian, still without a win in 2018 after an injury-ravaged second half of the 2017 season and a shock first-round loss to Alex De Minaur in Brisbane, could not impose his power game on Lacko, whose read of Raonic’s serve and ability to hit through the court proved decisive.
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Having missed the US Open last year, this was Raonic’s earliest Grand Slam exit since the 2011 French Open and the first time he has lost in the first round at Melbourne Park in eight appearances.
There were few signs of an upset on the cards as Raonic raced to a 3-0 lead in the first match of the day on Show Court 2, even after the Slovakian broke back and pushed the opening set to a tiebreak.
But as the match wore on, Lacko’s surefire striking from the baseline began to expose Raonic’s ring-rustiness, making the former semi-finalist look sluggish and second-best in the longer exchanges.
Lacko broke in the final game of both the second and third sets, securing a two sets to one lead with two blistering plays – lashing a forehand return that Raonic did well to shovel back before dinking a drop shot winner for set point, before smoking a cross-court forehand pass for a winner to move in front.
Lacko almost repeated the feat in the fourth set, seeing a match point come and go with Raonic serving at 4-5. Instead it came down to a second tiebreak – sealed in dramatic fashion when the 30-year-old challenged a Raonic backhand winner on his second match point, only for Hawkeye to overturn the call and end the contest after three hours, 21 minutes.
Up next for Lacko, who improves to 8-9 at the Australian Open, is a second-round showdown with Nicholas Kicker of Argentina, who defeated Australia’s Jordan Thompson in five sets.