Hungarian Marton Fucsovics came through a five-set thriller against Stan Wawrinka to reach the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday, saving three match points en route to a 7-5 6-1 4-6 2-6 7-6(9) win over the three-time Grand Slam champion.
Wawrinka was sloppy in the opening two sets, committing 29 unforced errors and landing just over 60% of his first serves, but the 17th seed found his range in the third set, breaking Fucsovics in the opening game before taking control with a string of blistering backhands.
Fucsovics recovered in the final set and appeared set for the win at 5-3 but Wawrinka again found another gear, drawing level at 5-5 before forcing a final set tiebreaker.
Wawrinka, the 2014 winner at Melbourne Park, raced to 6-1 lead and gave himself three match points but Fucsovics clawed back to 9-9 with some fearless hitting and went on to seal victory in just under four hours on the John Cain Arena court.
"Right now, I feel like I'm dying," said world number 55 Fucsovics, who also needed five sets to beat Marc Polmans in the opening round.
{{/usCountry}}"Right now, I feel like I'm dying," said world number 55 Fucsovics, who also needed five sets to beat Marc Polmans in the opening round.
{{/usCountry}}"I've played two five setters and it's really hot. I knew he would come back, he's very strong mentally and physically. But I was very strong mentally and that was the most important thing."
Wawrinka thought he had become overly cautious in the tiebreak.
"Not the best level for me, but again, I was fighting, I had some chances to finish the match," the 35-year-old said.
"From 6-1 (in the tiebreak) I started to hesitate a little bit the way I was playing.
"I wanted to put the ball maybe too much in and I'm not going completely for my shots and that's when I started to miss a little bit and it helped him to come back in the match."
Fucsovics will face Milos Raonic, the 14th seed, for a place in the last 16.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.