A five-set epic has ended Alexei Popyrin‘s Australian Open singles campaign after he was two points away from taking the match against Alexandre Muller.
During the fourth set, Popyrin had a 5-2 lead in the tiebreak but Muller rallied and won it 7-5 to force a deciding fifth set.
Muller then had to dig deep in another tiebreak, taking out the fifth 10-4.
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Overall the score was 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4) in Muller’s favour.
Alexei Popyrin. Â Getty
Popyrin dominated the first set, finishing with 10 aces and no double faults.
It was a seesawing affair from there and in the fourth set, trouble found Popyrin when he had calf issues.
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The Aussie had to call for medical support and a timeout after he noticeably stretched out during a game.
Popyrin managed to recover and looked solid when he was 5-2 up in that tiebreak but ultimately blew it.
Throughout the whole match, Popyrin finished with an incredible 40 aces to Muller’s five.
What cost the Aussie was his unforced error count, which read at 62. He was also worn down by the determination of his opponent, who had to defy multiple moments where it looked like the match was lost.
“A magnificent mental performance from the Frenchman,” Todd Woodbridge said on Nine.
Post-match, Muller admitted “it was not easy”.
“Alexei was serving so good during the match so I just tried to play my game and tried to be focused on my serving games, which isn’t easy because the crowd was for him all the time,” he told Jim Courier.
“But I’m very happy with the win.”
Muller’s next match will be against German superstar Alexander Zverev.