Ageless warrior Stan Wawrinka has continued his Australian Open farewell tour with a mind-blowing victory over rising star Arthur Gea.
Wawrinka, 40, fought back from two sets to one down to outlast his opponent 4-6 6-3 3-6 7-5 7-6(3) in the longest match of the tournament that had Kia Arena rocking.
The Swiss fan favourite used all his grit and experience to will his way over the line in a pulsating final set that had many twists and turns.
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Gea, who is 19 years younger than Wawrinka and making his grand slam debut, appeared to cramp up at the start of the super tiebreaker in a cruel blow.
He lost all power in his legs and crucially double faulted before missing an easy volley to give Wawrinka the early advantage.
Gea continued to show signs of discomfort and double faulted again to put Wawrinka on the cusp of victory.
After four hours and 33 minutes, Wawrinka sealed the victory to become the oldest player since Ken Rosewall in 1978 to reach the third round of the Australian Open.
“Hard to believe what we have just witnessed. Something very special from a true legend of the game,” Colin Fleming said in commentary.
Wawrinka, who won the Australian Open way back in 2014, had already announced this will be his last season on the tour.
Speaking after the match, the first thing Wawrinka could muster was “exhausted”.
He went on to thank the crowd for their incredible support throughout the epic match.
Wawrinka will now likely play ninth seed Taylor Fritz in the third round.
It was a sad end for Gea, but he can leave Melbourne Park with his head held high after a remarkable run in his first grand slam main draw appearance.
He won three matches in qualifying before taking down 17th seed Jiri Lehecka in the first round.
Meanwhile, age-defying Novak Djokovic has moved within touching distance of becoming the first person to win 400 matches at the majors with a clinical straight-sets victory over Italian qualifier Francesco Maestrelli.
In a grand slam career dating all the way back to 2005, Djokovic has never been beaten by a qualifier or anyone ranked outside the top 120 in the world.
With bigger fish to fry in the second week at Melbourne Park, that record was never going to change on Thursday.
The 24-time major champion was mostly in cruise control as he downed world No.141 Maestrelli 6-3 6-2 6-2 in two hours and 15 minutes for his 399th major win.
After a dominant 2023 campaign when he won three of the four majors, Djokovic has mostly had to watch on with the mere mortals of world tennis as the modern-day big two of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz divvied up the last eight grand slam titles.
Ending that two-handed hegemony and claiming a record-extending 25th major title of his own is now the driving motivation for the 38-year-old Serb.
“I always try to work with purpose and I had a longer off-season,” said Djokovic.
“When I have more time, then I obviously try to look at my game and different elements that I can really improve.
“Otherwise, what’s the point? What’s the point of competing and coming out and not really trying to be better than you were the season before?
“That’s the kind of mentality I try to nurture.
“It’s allowed me to play at the highest level at this age and I’m glad that it’s paying off.”
Djokovic, who is in two-time defending AO champion Sinner’s half of the draw, will play Dutchman Botic van de Zandschup who eased past Shang Juncheng from China 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 6-3.
Elsewhere, big-serving American Ben Shelton apologised to fans after playing the role of party pooper and ending Dane Sweeny’s Australian Open odyssey at Melbourne Park.
The eighth-seeded Shelton crunched 19 aces, the third-fastest serve of the tournament and never even offered up a single break point in ousting Sweeny 6-3 6-2 6-2 on Thursday.
He next plays Valetin Vacherot in the third round after Monaco’s 30th seed eliminated Sweeny’s fellow Australian Rinky Hijikata 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-2.
Fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti also advanced to the last 32 on Thursday with a 6-3 6-4 6-4 win over fellow Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
Musetti awaits the winner of 11th-seeded 2023 Open finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas and Adelaide International winner Tomas Machac.
Russian world No.18 Karen Khachanov beat American qualifier Nishesh Basavareddy 6-1 6-4 6-3.
– With AAP
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