Tennis: Hurkacz beats Kokkinakis in epic three-setter, Medvedev will get straightforward win

Hubert Hurkacz saved 5 match factors as he fought again to beat Thanasi Kokkinakis in a three-and-a-half hour epic whereas fourth-seed Daniil Medvedev obtained his Miami Open bid below means with a straightforward win on Saturday. 

Hurkacz was pushed all the way in which by the Australian fortunate loser Kokkinakis earlier than rising with a 6-7 (10/12), 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (8/6) victory.

The Aussie had proven his mettle by saving six set factors as he received the first-set tie-break and Hurkacz, the 2021 Miami champion, saved three match factors within the second-set tie-break and one other two within the final-set breaker.

“It’s robust to clarify for me. I used to be simply attempting to remain in there and compete, play some good pictures,” mentioned Hurkacz, the eighth seed at Exhausting Rock Stadium.

Kokkinakis was on serve at 6-4 up within the remaining set tie-break however Hurkacz produced a surprising winner up the road and that shot lastly turned the tide decisively in direction of the Pole, who received the following three factors to settle the competition.

The three hours, 31 minutes contest was the longest best-of-three ATP match of the 12 months to date.

In distinction, Indian Wells runner-up Medvedev barely broke sweat beating Spanish clay-court specialist Roberto Carballes Baena 6-1, 6-2 in simply 62 minutes.

The Russian’s loss to Carlos Alcaraz within the Indian Wells remaining had ended his 19-match profitable streak, however he was completely dominant as he struck 18 winners to the Carballes Baena’s 5.

Medvedev made use of the drop shot, which Alcaraz had used to good impact towards him final week, and joked that he had been attempting to emulate the world primary.

“I believed I wanted to make use of that shot extra. I’ve all the time appreciated drop pictures but it surely’s not a weapon in my sport that I’ll use 50 instances a match,” he mentioned.

“You’ll want to believe within the shot and right now it labored fairly nicely,” he mentioned.

“I am proud of my first match, stable efficiency, trying ahead for subsequent matches,” he added.

Medvedev grew to become the primary participant to achieve 25 wins this season on both the ATP or WTA excursions.

People Christopher Eubanks and Mackenzie McDonald produced upset wins to e-book their locations within the third spherical.

Eubanks pulled off the largest win of his profession to date to beat Seventeenth-ranked Croatian Borna Coric 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 whereas McDonald beat Italy’s Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/5).

The 26-year-old Eubanks, ranked 119th on the earth, recovered from a primary set the place the Croat appeared in agency management to thrill the house crowd.

“I truthfully felt like I wasn’t enjoying that dangerous. I simply wasn’t executing,” Eubanks mentioned. “I felt like my sport plan was proper. I wished to be disruptive. I wished to get the web. I simply wasn’t executing on pictures. I can type of stay with that.

“So I mentioned, ‘Nicely, I really feel like I am enjoying the correct means. If I simply proceed to attempt it, hopefully the execution errors will reduce and I will be capable of discover my vary.’ I used to be ready to do this.”

McDonald received a thriller towards Twenty third-ranked Berrettini, edging each tie-breaks and surviving two set factors within the twelfth sport of the second set.

Czech Jiri Lehecka’s spectacular kind continued as he took out 18th seed Lorenzo Musetti.

The 21-year-old, who reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final in Australia, triumphed 6-4, 6-4 to achieve the third spherical of a Masters 1000 occasion for the primary time.

Two-time Grand Slam runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas superior into the third spherical after France’s Richard Gasquet withdrew with an ankle harm.

Greek quantity two seed Tsitsipas, will subsequent face Chile’s Cristian Garin, who beat Argentine Sebastian Baez 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.

Tsitsipas was runner-up at this 12 months’s Australian Open and the 2021 French Open however misplaced his opening spherical match at Indian Wells earlier this month.

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