Five sets again! Marathon man Draper makes it 3 in a row at the AO

Not once. Not twice. But three in a row. Jack Draper won his third fifth-set match in succession on Friday at the Australian Open, where he defeated Australian Aleksandar Vukic 6-4, 2-6, 5-7, 7-6(5), 7-6(10-8) to reach the fourth round in Melbourne for the first time.

The 23-year-old British lefty earned a four-hour, one-minute victory in the first round to move past Mariano Navone in five and then backed that up by defeating Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis in four hours and 35 minutes over five sets on Wednesday.

Stepping onto court against Vukic – a five-set winner himself against Damir Dzumhur and Sebastian Korda in his first two matches – you would not have been surprised if the fuel tank was empty.

However, from two sets to one down for the third match in a row, the 23-year-old rallied to record another five-set victory after three hours and 58 minutes.

"He played incredible," Draper said. "It was a tough match and we have both played a lot of sets in our first couple of rounds, so I knew it would be tough. There were lots of ebbs and flows and it was great tennis. I thought it was done [at 3-1 in the final set] but he came back from the dead and played incredible. We are suffering in the five sets and you sometimes get little bits of energy.

"It was a great battle between two competitors going at it and that is what sport is all about."

Draper is the seventh man in history to win their first three rounds at the Australian Open in five sets. He joins Adrian Mannarino (2024), Dominik Hrbaty (2006), Thomas Johansson (2005), Felix Mantilla (2003), Nicolas Lapentti (1999) and Steve Denton (1981).

The marathon man does it again 😤@jackdraper0 wins his third five-set match in a row to reach the fourth round for the first time.@AustralianOpen | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/sozicHp5sY

— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 17, 2025

Draper won his first five-set match last year at the hard-court major in Melbourne, where he threw up in a bin after defeating Marcos Giron in the opening round. Twelve months on and the World No. 18 now holds a 5-1 record in matches that have gone the distance.

Draper struggled with a hip injury during the offseason and was forced to miss the United Cup. However, he has physically stood up to the tests this week in Melbourne.

"My body doesn't feel too great but luckily I have got a good physio," Draper said. "Mentally I have competed hard and I have loved the atmosphere. It has given me a lot of energy to keep pushing myself and I am surprising myself."

Draper will need to recover quickly ahead of a meeting with four-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz. The Briton, who advanced to the semis at the US Open in September, trails the Spaniard 1-2 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

*Research contribution from Jon Jeraj