Australian wildcard Chris O’Connell has claimed the biggest win of his career, knocking off 13th seed Diego Schwartzman.
After a mammoth 84-minute first set, the 27-year-old pulled away to win in straight sets, 7-6 6-4 6-4.
A raucous crowd was riding the match with him the whole way, and if Court 3 had a roof, it may have come off when he clinched match point.
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“The atmosphere’s unbelievable out here, and I really just channelled it,” he said afterwards.
“I cant describe it.”
O’Connell said he was ‘pretty disappointed’ in his first round loss on the same court last year, and was just focused on putting his best foot forward – citing some hard grinding late last year as one of the reasons for his success.
“I worked really hard in December, in the Sydney heat – so I was really happy when I saw the temperature was quite hot today,” he said.
“I knew if I just hung tough in the first set it would get easier for me – but it was still a battle.”
A massive outsider going into the match, few would have picked this result.
“I did not see this coming today when they stepped onto the court,” commentator Wally Masur said after match point.
Not only did O’Connell seal the biggest win of his career, he did it with class – at one stage conceding a point that had been awarded to him by the umpire when he fessed up to touching a ball that sailed out.
It was a pure act of sportsmanship for a player the Australian public is bound to get behind in a big way when he takes the court again on Saturday in his third round match-up.
O’Connell had only won one singles match at a grand slam before this week, beating Serbian Laslo Dere in the 2020 US Open before going down to Daniil Medvedev.
Today’s win means that regardless of his third round result, he will increase his career prizemoney by a third – the world number 175 has racked up just over $750,000 during his career.
The payout for a loss in his next match, against Maxime Cressy, would be $221,000.
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