Also an hour or two ago this afternoon over at Margaret Court Arena, we witnessed another five set stunner between 14th seed American Tommy Paul & Miomir Kecmanović from Serbia. The Serbian got a close opening set lead while Tommy Paul went from a set down to being closer towards the finish line after the third set at 2-1. However, Kecmanovic never gave up when not only he won another set back at the tiebreak but he managed to finish the match by punching his ticket into the last 16 so fast at the 5th & final set decider. The final score was 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 with 7-9 tiebreaker & 0-6.
Bugger for Tommy Paul with the 3rd round exit after his huge breakthrough here 12 months ago where he lost to Novak Djokovic but what an effort thought to fight back nonetheless. He was so close earlier on and he knew what he had to do to rebound before Paul took over top spot over his opponent for the first time. Sadly, he just couldn’t find his way back after he lost both the 4th tie, being blown away fast at final set & the match itself. Paul hasn’t kicked on for most of last year, even though he did okay through to the 4th round on home soil at the US Open. Plus, hats off to Kecmanovic who put in an absolute show where he’s now off to the fourth round for the first time in his grand slam career. Although, he will be tested against one of the world’s best right now in Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. It will be interesting to see if his courageous resistance in long spells would be the key towards an outside chance of a win. But for now, he will need to work on his inconsistency where he struggled midway through the afternoon until he managed to regroup himself during the fourth set before he sprinted his way past Paul again & there goes his huge day on-court. He has gone through a tough 2023 after not being able to advance after the 1R & the Serbian is sure to win back more this year despite a difficult next round match-up.
