Jack Draper silences Australian Open crowd as Jacob Fearnley's rise continues
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Jack Draper battled a raucous home crowd to beat Thanasi Kokkinakis and reach the Australian Open third round. It was another gruelling contest long into the Melbourne night as Draper won 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 3-6 7-5 6-3 after four hours and 35 minutes on court as tempers frayed, evoking Andy Murray’s marathon win over the same opponent two years ago.
Murray in 2023 famously recovered from two sets and a break down against Kokkinakis to win a second-round match that finished at 4.05am. British no1 Draper, who was booed when he came onto the court, broke Kokkinakis when the home favourite was serving for the match, briefly silencing the Australian crowd who were against him all evening, and didn’t look back.
Time and again Draper was seen holding his hand to his ear to almost goad the home fans, but his celebrations at the end were more muted. He told Eurosport: “This is what I play for since I was a young guy, I wanted to play in front of big crowds and whether you guys are with me or against me it was a tough atmosphere to deal with.
“You guys were obviously all with Thanasi but I had a little fun as well. It was so good to be out here and really happy with the amount of support we get here at these big tournaments, it’s unbelievable.”. Earlier, Jacob Fearnley broke more new ground in Melbourne to set up a third-round clash with No2 seed Alexander Zverev.
