Stircrazy wrote:

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L32:   Jacob Fearnley WR 92 vs (2) Alexander Zverev (GER) WR 2 (= CH) 

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L64:  (15) Jack Draper WR 18 defeated Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) WR 71 by 6-7(3) 6-3 3-6 7-5 6-3    (four hours & 35 minutes!)

How on earth did he turn that round?    Damn' glad he did, though!    And he's certainly playing his way back into some kind of form after all his recent injury woes.    All credit to "The Kokk" for giving him a run for his money - more or less literally!

*****

Another Aussie in the next round:

L32:  (15) Jack Draper WR 18 vs Aleksandar Vukic (AUS) WR 68 (CH = 48 in August 2023)

Vukic beat Korda (22) in five sets in his second round match...

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Wednesday 15th of January 2025 09:28:01 PM

Jack Draper !

Wins each of his first two rounds in 5 sets, being 0-1 and 1-2 down in sets in both.

Amazing fight from both Jack and Jake today. I tuned in briefly to Jake's match early in the second set and it looked like he was struggling a little. Cazaux had the support of a bunch of very vociferous French fans in the crowd who were creating a lot of noise.

Very impressive for him to have turned that one around. And now a chance to take on Salty Sascha with nothing to lose - up to 77 in the world on the live rankings too.

Watched the 5th set of Jack's match. I always thought this would be a tough one for him. Kokkinakis always raises his game at the AO - if he brought that level week-in, week-out, he'd definitely be in the top 50. Playing an inspired big hitter in front of a partisan crowd is never easy.

And there was a moment even at 3-3 in the 5th when Jack was 0-30 on serve, I thought it might go the other way. Showed incredible fight to turn that one around. I'm definitely not sure he'd have won this one a year ago

JonH comes home wrote:

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Well, I wrote Jack off too soon. Will be massive if he turns this around. Could go well over 4 hours as well.

Fingers crossed.

Re Kokkinakis - his issue has always been application with a degree of injury. He reminds me of a Jack Sock in terms of not really hitting what I think his potential is - agree that 65 is a long way off top 20 and, now, he probably never will make top 20, and yes, top 40 probably is his limit - but he could have been a contender, as one famous movie once said.

That AO doubles triumph with Kyrgios show cased his talent, just never applied it in singles - which is where the Jack Sock comparisons start to come in for me. Sock - what a waste, he should have been a top 20 and even top 10 regular and he's now playing pickleball and looking a bit fat!

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Yeah Sock's a strange one. I remember back in 2013 he was being bigged up as a world-beater and that serve-forehand combo always looked fearsome but it never quite happened for him, apart from that one random year at the Paris Masters where he tore everyone to shreds

 

 

Stircrazy wrote:

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L64:  (15) Jack Draper WR 18 defeated Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) WR 71 by 6-7(3) 6-3 3-6 7-5 6-3    (four hours & 35 minutes!)

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Quote from Mark Woodforde in the Beeb's live text commentary on the match:

Jack Draper showing us his colours and how much he has worked on his fitness to be able to survive and control his emotions against a very difficult crowd and a difficult opponent.

-- Edited by Stircrazy on Wednesday 15th of January 2025 09:28:26 PM

Well done Jack but can we have a straight set win in the 3rd round or you gonna have nothing left