Eighteen Australian Open matches have gone to five sets…so far

Andy Murray (Carine Theron, Wikimedia Commons)

One of the biggest stories from the 2022 Australian Open so far is a positive one. We are having the opportunity to speak about the outstanding, competitive tennis, and have hopefully now forgotten about the tennis star who refused to enter Australia double vaccinated like everyone else.

Of the matches to date, 18 of them have gone the distance, and needed a fifth set to determine the winner. Of the 18 five-set matches so far, only one needed to go to a fifth set tiebreak. That happened on Wednesday, as American Sebastian Korda defeated Corentin Moutet of France, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 in the second round. In the fifth set tiebreak, Korda came away with a 10-6 super tiebreak win.

There were also three seeded players who won in the fifth set on Wednesday in round two. Fourteenth ranked Denis Shapovalov beat Soonwoo Kwon of South Korea, 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 7-5, 6-2. Sixteenth ranked Cristian Garin of Chile defeated Pedro Martinez of Spain, 6-7, 7-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, and nineteenth ranked Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain defeated Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 3-6, 6-4.

For Kwon and Garin, they have been in two five set matches so far. In the first round, Kwon defeated Holger Rune of Denmark, 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Garin meanwhile beat Facundo Bagnis of Argentina, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-7, 6-3.

One of the more intriguing round one, five set matches came between Marton Fucsovics of Hungary and Dusan Lajovic of Serbia. Lajovic reached the fourth round of the 2021 Australian Open, while Fucsovics reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Lajovic won 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-7, 6-1. Meanwhile, ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada bounced back nicely after being bageled in the second set to beat Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland, 6-4, 0-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

We also saw two seeded players be knocked out of the first round in five sets. Three-time grand slam champion Andy Murray of Great Britain, who is in Australia as a wildcard, beat the 21st ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4, and in an all-American matchup, Maxime Cressy upset the 22nd ranked John Isner, 7-6, 7-5, 6-7, 6-7, 6-4.

Now it will be interesting to see how many players who won a fifth set match in round one will win round two. In addition to Garin, 18th ranked Aslan Karatsev of Russia, and Adrian Mannarino of France have also won their second round match, after going the distance in their opening match.

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