Ruud outlasts Purcell in Australian Open five-set thriller

Close but no cigar has mostly been the story for Australian men at this year’s Australian Open. Jordan Thompson lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets. Also on Wednesday, Alexei Popyrin was one point away from taking a two sets to one lead over Novak Djokovic — only to fall in four.

On Thursday afternoon it was Max Purcell’s turn to try his hand.

Purcell almost treated the home crowd in Margaret Court Arena to a monumental win over No 11 seed Casper Ruud, but again the fan favorite came up short. Ruud held off a furious charge by the underdog to prevail 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7) after three hours and 50 minutes to book his spot in the round of 32.

The match was every bit as good as the score suggests, with the players engaging in high-quality contrast of styles — Ruud with his consistent baseline game going up against Purcell’s net-charging tactics. The result was a contest in which service breaks came at a premium. Ruud saved a whopping 12 of 13 break points, while Purcell fought off eight of 10.

The most dramatic break-point survival came with Purcell serving at 3-4 in the fifth, when the world No 45 came up with a pair of incredible plays at the net. He also saved a match point at 4-5 before finally earning a routine hold at 5-6 to force a decisive tiebreaker.

In the ‘breaker, however, Ruud raced to a 3-0 lead and never trailed at any point.

“I think his plan was just to stress me as much as he could, just rip balls from the back, try to rush, come to the net,” Ruud said of Purcell. “He does it so well. It’s tough for me to find any rhythm.

“I do feel like it was a well-played match. I just saw the stats after the match. He hit 93 winners I think and he came to the net 101 times and won I think 70 or 72 points out of 100 at the net. It just shows how different he plays from kind of the rest of the guys on tour.

“He serves great, as well. He’s not the biggest guy, but he has a really quick arm and shoulder. He generates a lot of spin speed with the serve, and he mixes up. He’s a really tricky player and a great tennis player in my eyes, even though he plays different from others. I’m very happy with the win.”

“No regrets,” Purcell concluded. “(It was a) great match with Casper. (I’m) looking to take that confidence into the rest of the season.”

Next up for Ruud is the winner of a match between No 19 seed Cameron Norrie and Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri.

Ruud previously defeated Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas (6-1, 6-3, 6-1) in Melbourne. Purcell opened with a victory over Hungarian qualifier Mate Valkusz (3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 7-5).

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other second-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 58.910.000, most recent results first):

• Emil Ruusuvuori vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Holger Rune vs. Arthur Cazaux
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Hugo Grenier
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis
• Jakub Mensik vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Ugo Humbert vs. Zhizhen Zhang
• Arthur Fils vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Sumit Nagal vs. Juncheng Shang
• Nuno Borges vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Carlos Alcaraz: thursday
• Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Jan-Lennard Struff: thursday
• Tommy Paul vs. Jack Draper: thursday
• Cameron Norrie vs. Giulio Zeppieri: thursday
• Alex Michelsen beat Jiri Lehecka (32): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
• Alexander Zverev vs. Lukas Klein: thursday
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Alexei Popyrin: 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Christopher Eubanks: 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Sebastian Korda (29) beat Quentin Halys: 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (7) beat Jordan Thompson: 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2, 7-6 (4)
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry (30) beat Gael Monfils: 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Tomas Machac beat Frances Tiafoe (17): 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (5)
• Adrian Mannarino (20) beat Jaume Munar: 6-3, 6-3, 1-6, 2-6, 6-3
• Ben Shelton (16) beat Christopher O’Connell: 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5)
• Fabian Marozsan beat Francisco Cerundolo (22): 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-2
• Taylor Fritz (12) beat Hugo Gaston (LL): 6-0, 6-3, 6-1
• Karen Khachanov (15) beat Aleksandar Kovacevic (Q): 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
• Luca Van Assche beat Lorenzo Musetti (25): 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0
• Flavio Cobolli (Q) beat Pavel Kotov: 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
• Sebastian Baez (26) beat Daniel Elahi Galan: 7-5, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Alex De Minaur (10) beat Matteo Arnaldi: 6-3, 6-0, 6-3
• Jannik Sinner (4) beat Jesper De Jong (Q): 6-2, 6-2, 6-2

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