For a second straight match, Roberto Bautista Agut survived a game opponent and an atmospheric Melbourne Arena crowd very much behind that opponent to seal a spot in the last 32 of Australian Open 2019.
The Spaniard saw off gallant Australian John Millman 6-3 6-1 3-6 6-7(6) 6-4 on Wednesday night, re-focusing after the loss of four consecutive match points in the fourth-set tiebreak to eventually secure victory in three hours and 48 minutes.
It was an eerily similar circumstance to Bautista Agut’s match two nights prior on the very same court.
Facing sentimental favourite Andy Murray, he led two sets to love, only for Murray to produce an inspired fightback and ignite the crowd across the next two sets. Bautista Agut then snuffed out the fairytale comeback in the fifth.
"I don't know (how I stayed so calm),” he admitted on court after his latest battle.
"I passed through many difficult moments today. It was really tough to win the fifth set; Johnny is a real fighter, he played really good match. After I had four match points on the tiebreak, the fifth set was really tough because I wanted to go to the locker room.
“I thought that if I wanted to win the fifth set I had to stay very concentrated, to fight until the last moment and play point by point. That's what I tried.”
Two hours earlier, there was no indication this match would unfold in such dramatic fashion. The No.22 seed completely dominated the first two sets, and was especially deadly with his flat, penetrating forehand, a shot to which Millman didn’t really have an effective answer.
Yet Millman plays a physically punishing brand of tennis, launching himself into his shots and grunting and snarling with effort. And he began to gradually get the better of Bautista Agut in the longer rallies as the Spaniard’s game lost a little of its sting and began to break down.
A break in the fourth game of the third set was all Millman needed to send the match into a fourth set, and then came that stunning revival in the ensuing tiebreak.
Millman looked almost certainly headed for the exit when he failed to capitalise on a 5-3 lead in the fourth set; a little while later he was mired in that tiebreak and trailing six points to two.
Yet he hit his way out of trouble in a glorious flurry of strokes, producing a forehand winner, an unreturnable serve, an ace down the T and then a backhand winner to level scores at 6-6.
If you thought the crowd was loud at that point, then Melbourne Arena’s retractable roof nearly blew off when Millman smacked another forehand winner two points later to send the match to a fifth set.
The Queenslander had all the momentum in the world. Which made Bautista Agut’s performance in the final stanza all the more commendable.
"It's really tough. It's obviously very tough to be here, too, after that one. I left it all out there. Gave it a crack," Millman said.
"He's a pretty professional player. He came back (in the fifth), I think similar thing happened when he played against Andy. He's a very good player. There's a reason why he won Doha, beat Djokovic and Berdych on the way, to win that just a week, two weeks ago. Top player, very physical."
Registering practically no sign of negative emotion, Bautista Agut calmly returned to executing those flat, smooth, pace-laden groundstrokes. Three winning forehands earned him a service break in the fifth game.
This was an advantage he would not relinquish again.
Another scorching forehand winner earned him three match points in the 10th game. He converted the very next one.
No.10 seed Karen Khachanov is next. But Bautista Agut was not prepared to think of that yet.
"I'm still enjoying the win now,” he said.
“I did a really good job on the court, and I'm really happy."