Stan Wawrinka crashes out of the Australian Open in second round
Former champion Stan Wawrinka has suffered a second-round exit at the Australian Open, letting three match points slip in a five-set loss to Marton Fucsovics.
After fighting back from two sets down, Wawrinka succumbed 7-5 6-1 4-6 2-6 7-6 (11-9) to Hungarian Marton Fucsovics on Wednesday.
It was Fucsovics’ second five-setter in as many matches after he beat Australian Marc Polmans first-up.
“Right now, I feel like I’m dying,” Fucsovics said.
“I’m really tired. I played two five-setters. Today’s hot but I’m really happy to be in the third round.”
With Wawrinka knocked out and his fellow Swiss Roger Federer absent, world No.1 Novak Djokovic is now the only Australian Open champion from the past decade left in the draw.
Wawrinka had cruised past Pedro Sousa first-up but faced a far sterner task in Fucsovics, who reeled off the first two sets before the 2014 Melbourne Park champion kicked into action.
The 17th seed fought out the third set, then ripped his way through the fourth to tee up a dramatic finish.
In the fifth set, Fucsovics broke Wawrinka’s serve while leading 4-3, only to be immediately broken back when serving for the match the next game, with the contest ultimately going to a match tiebreak.
Wawrinka snuck out to a 6-1 lead in the match tiebreak and had three match points at 9-6 but lost all three.
Fucsovics then did not make a mistake with his first and only match point.
He will face 14th seed Milos Raonic in the third round after the Canadian beat Corentin Moutet 6-7 (1-7) 6-1 6-1 6-4.
Earlier on Wednesday, eighth seed Diego Schwartzman comfortably accounted for Alexandre Miller 6-2 6-0 6-3 to cruise into the third round.
The Argentinian has set up a clash with Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev, who beat Egor Gerasimov 6-0 6-1 6-0.
Canadian 20th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime reached the third round by knocking out Australian James Duckworth in straight-sets.
Auger-Aliassime’s 6-4 6-1 6-2 victory sets him on a collision course with the winner of Wednesday afternoon’s match between Denis Shapovalov and Bernard Tomic.
© AAP
