On the kind of day when you needed eyes in the back of your head to follow all the big names in action, American Frances Tiafoe was involved in one of the most dramatic first round matches on 1573 Arena.
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At one stage on Monday Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Nick Kyrgios were all on court at the same time, but none of that trio quite experienced the highs and lows that Tiafoe had to endure.
When the AO 2019 quarterfinalist and 17th seed led Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech by two sets to one and 5-2 in the fourth, it was looking like plain sailing for the 26-year-old.
That’s when things started to get complicated.
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Tiafoe failed to serve out the match, then started suffering with cramp and even vomited next to the court during the 12th game of that set before Rinderknech took the contest into a decider.
Impressively though, Tiafoe used all of his physical reserves to pull out a 7-6(2) 6-3 4-6 6-7(4) 6-3 victory in four hours and eight minutes on a warm day in Melbourne.
“Probably overly hydrated, mixing a lot of electrolytes,” was Tiafoe’s explanation for his sickness on court afterwards.
“It's 11am. It's a tough time. We played for four hours. All of lunch we are playing through it. We ate at 10am. I mean, playing 11am, three out of five, wasn't too happy about that, to be honest with you. I feel like it's really tough to prepare.
“Still not feeling great,” the American went on to admit during his press conference, “but at the same time you do feel great because you get to see another day. So you feel even worse if you're feeling like this and you're out of the tournament.
“I'm still in. So I'm going to sleep tonight with a little chuckle on my face, for sure.”
One man who definitely won’t be chuckling is 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov. The 2017 semifinalist was heartbroken as he retired with a hip injury early in the second set against Italian lucky loser Francesco Passaro.
It is the second retirement in as many tournaments for Dimitrov this year, and the Bulgarian also had Grand Slam runs disrupted by injury at both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2024.
Elsewhere, Aussie Christopher O’Connell came agonisingly close to scoring one of the wins of his career before falling in five tight sets to American Tommy Paul at well past midnight.
The AO 2023 semifinalist was preparing himself for a deciding set tiebreak before breaking in the 12th game of the fifth to shatter the hearts of the Kia Arena crowd with a 6-2 3-6 6-1 6-7(7) 7-5 win.
Last Saturday’s Adelaide champion Felix Auger-Aliassime carried over his form and momentum to Melbourne to get past dangerous German Jan Lennard Struff on Court 7.
The Canadian 29th seed quickly got things back on track after losing the third set to advance 6-3 6-0 4-6 6-1. He plays Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina next.
It was a good day for the Brits as Jack Draper survived a scare in his first match of the year to come through a deciding fifth set 6-2 against Argentine Mariano Navone.
The 2024 US Open semifinalist recovered from two sets to one down to finish strongly despite recently nursing a hip injury during the off season.
“I think I showed a lot of heart today,” said the world No.18, who plays Thanasi Kokkinakis next. “Wasn't pretty at all. Was nowhere near my best. Sometimes it's about showing some heart.”
Later in the day, fellow Brit Jacob Fearnley made a name for himself on his Australian Open debut by seeing off a less-than-100 per cent fit Kyrgios 7-6(3) 6-3 7-6(2).