Jack Draper vomited into a courtside bin after overcoming struggles with the Melbourne heat while Cameron Norrie eased into second round; we will bring you live scores, reports, analysis and features from Melbourne over the next fortnight
Tuesday 16 January 2024 12:39, UK
Jack Draper vomited into a courtside bin after overcoming the Melbourne heat to win his first five-set match, while British No 1 Cameron Norrie dispelled injury worries to ease into the second round of the Australian Open.
Draper overcame struggles with the Melbourne heat to defeat Marcos Giron in his first five-set match.
It is a measure of how inexperienced the 22-year-old still is at the highest level that he had never previously played a match that went the distance, and he looked in serious trouble at two sets to one down against American Giron.
But Draper has been working hard on his physical conditioning and it paid off as he fought back to win 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-0 6-2 after three hours and 20 minutes.
As soon as he had shaken hands with Giron after a final gruelling rally, he ran to the bin to be sick and it was several minutes before he was able to walk off the court.
He will now have to try to recover for a second-round match, against 14th seed Tommy Paul on Thursday, when temperatures are at least forecast to be much lower.
The match was dominated by punishing rallies from the start, with Draper getting the better of five straight breaks of serve and narrowly hanging on to his advantage.
But the momentum began to swing Giron's way in the second set as the physicality of the match took its toll on Draper.
After Giron levelled the match, the 22-year-old called the trainer to have his pulse taken and blood pressure checked.
He carried on but was unable to chase down the sort of shots he had got to in the first set and his race looked run when Giron opened up a two sets to one lead.
He took another off-court break to change his clothes and came out for the fourth set with a game plan to up the aggression and shorten the points.
It worked superbly, a mixture of thumping groundstokes and feathered drop shots taking California's Giron, who had appeared untroubled by the heat, out of his comfort zone.
Draper raced through the set, putting him into uncharted territory, but, with shade finally creeping across the court, both his game and his body just about held up to carry him through to his first victory at Melbourne Park.
Fellow Brit Norrie was a concern heading into this year's Grand Slam having pulled out of the ASB Classic in Auckland, the city where he grew up, last week ahead of his quarter-final because of a left wrist problem.
Norrie admitted he was concerned with so little time to recover but there were no causes for alarm in a 6-4 6-4 6-2 victory over Peru's Juan Pablo Varillas as he became the first British winner of the fortnight.
"I was lucky enough to be able to manage the practice and give myself the best chance to be ready to compete and was able to still do a lot of movement and a lot of fitness before, so it was good," said Norrie.
It was a kind draw for Norrie, although 81st-ranked Varillas did push Alexander Zverev to five sets in the first round here last year before going on to make the fourth round of the French Open.
Norrie looked a little tentative to start with but settled into a rhythm of lengthy baseline rallies and finally took his sixth opportunity to break serve in the fifth game.
The 19th seed took full control of the contest in the second set, finding more penetration on his groundstrokes and opening up a 5-1 lead.
Varillas fought back with three games in a row but Norrie served it out at the second time of asking and was untroubled in the third to set up a meeting with world No 133 Giulio Zeppieri.
Norrie is wary of the Italian qualifier, saying: "I actually played him once in Rome and he beat me last time there. Young, talented player. Lefty. I watched the end of his match. He played really well. He competes really well. Kind of plays a little bit similar to me.
"It's definitely going to be a tough match. Looking for some revenge from last time, because he beat me really easily last time."
After Emma Raducanu and Katie Boulter both won, Dan Evans was not able to make it five wins for the Brits from five matches on Tuesday.
Evans lost 6-4 6-7 (8-10) 2-6 6-7 (4-7) to Lorenzo Sonego in a match where the crowd played their part.
The Briton broke in the third game of the opening set, which proved to be a key moment, then both players missed set points in the second set tie-break.
Sonego squandered two, then Evans missed one, before the Italian took his third set-point chance.
Winning the tie-break seemed to boost Sonego as he raced through the third set, breaking Evans twice, and there were plenty of fans on his side.
Evans cut a frustrated figure but raised his game again to send the match into a fourth set tie-break. Sonego was playing some incredible tennis and took a 5-0 lead, only for Evans to get back to 5-4.
Sonego won the next three points though to fall over the finish line and booked a place in the second round against world No 2 Carlos Alcaraz, who beat Richard Gasquet 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 6-2.
Norwegian 11th seed Casper Ruud fired off 42 winners as he eased past Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1 6-3 6-1 in just over two hours.
But Ruud's preparations for his second-round match will have to wait until he has nailed down the decor of his new home.
"I actually have a Zoom call with an interior architect tonight. I'm going to have to prepare for that and think about other things," Ruud said. "Fabric, colour, mixing, blah blah blah. It's a bit different than tennis."
Brisbane champion Grigor Dimitrov improved to 6-0 in 2024 with a comeback 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-1) 6-2 win against Marton Fucsovics.
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