Marathon man Thanasi Kokkinakis has finally run out of late-night miracles, with his third attempt at an astonishing, drama-filled French Open comeback triumph in five days falling agonisingly short at the hands of American number one Taylor Fritz.
Kokkinakis, who had already come from behind to win two epic five-setters against fellow Australian Alexei Popyrin and Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri, rose from the slab again to drag the number 12 seed into a deciding set after falling two sets behind.
But after beating Zeppieri from two sets down, this time the South Australian battler just couldn’t get over the line as Fritz regrouped to win 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 5-7, 6-3 after three hours and 48 minutes of the most engrossing, big-hitting fare, with the pair booming 113 winners between them.
It denied 28-year-old Kokkinakis his chance of a first crack at a last-16 match in his 21st grand slam, where he would have joined fellow Australian Alex de Minaur.
But he left the tournament as the drama-magnet-in-chief after a resilient effort.
Exhausted after his previous two finishes at 11:37pm and 11:35pm, the 28-year-old Kokkinakis this time dragged the tension out until 11:44pm after admitting beforehand that his sole hope had been only to get on to the court in one piece.
And after a long wait to play because of the fifth straight day of rain at Roland Garros, it looked all over once Fritz burst out the blocks on Court 14 to race into a two-set lead, breaking Kokkinakis three times without even facing a break point of his own.
But Kokkinakis, who had won his four previous grand slam five-setters, found remarkable reserves to then sneak the fourth set after a controversial finish to the tiebreak.
The flashpoint came after Kokkinakis had brought up set point and thought he had won the stanza when a Fritz service return looped seemingly out, and the Australian pumped his fist believing he had taken the set.
But the line judge didn’t call it in — to Kokkinakis’s horror — and he protested loudly, yelling: “That’s so far out, it’s horrendous!”
Umpire Alison Hughes had to adjudicate and awarded the point and the set to the Australian, while Fritz queried the call, looking distinctly unimpressed.
Clearly a bit rattled, the American then lost the next set after Kokkinakis made the key break at 5-5 and, riding the momentum, then earned break points in the third and fifth games of the decider, only being unable to convert.
It enabled Fritz to pounce, breaking the Australian to love to earn the final decisive break, with the Californian eventually blasting his 56th winner to seal a fourth-round place against Norway’s dual finalist Casper Ruud or Argentine Thomas Etcheverry, who were still locked in an even later finish.
AAP
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