Alex de Minaur, Chris O’Connell and Jason Kubler have launched a belated Australian revival at Wimbledon, returning to the court after a couple rain-soaked days to complete victories in their first-round matches.
After Aleksandar Vukic had quickly become the country’s latest casualty on Thursday, the trio rallied to score crucial wins to keep Australian hopes alive.
All three have had to wait for four days to finally complete their first-round matches, and they didn’t make it over the line without a hiccup or two.
De Minaur had begun the day in his resumed tie on Court 18, two sets to one up and expecting to swiftly finish the job against qualifier Kimmer Coppejans.
But the Belgian, despite going 4-2 down in the fourth set, rallied strongly and even had the chance to serve to level matters at two sets all when serving at 5-4 up, only to hit the simplest forehand put-away long.
The awful miss spared de Minaur a nervy final set, with the Australian No 1, a finalist at Queen’s, showing his new-found calm and class as he dug in to level matters and then take control in the tiebreak to prevail 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-3 7-6 (7-2).
O’Connell, who had begun the day two sets to nil up against Hamad Medjedovic did eventually complete his win but only after his Serbian opponent had clawed back the third set, with the Sydneysider eventually winning 7-5 6-4 4-6 6-4.
Within the space of an hour, the Australians were celebrating a third win as Brisbane’s Kubler, who had been two sets to one up overnight, finally repelled a fightback from French southpaw Ugo Humbert to win 6-4 4-6 6-2 3-6 6-3.
To start the day, though, Vukic, in his second-round contest, went down 6-3 6-1 6-4 to big-serving Frenchman Quentin Halys.
The world No 87 Vukic, watched by his parents who had flown over from Sydney, was hoping to follow up his outstanding first-round win over German Daniel Altmaier with a triumph that would take him into the third round of a grand slam for the first time.
With Max Purcell, Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson having already departed, Nick Kyrgios failing to make the start line with injury, and both women, Storm Hunter and Daria Saville, failing to negotiate the first round, Thursday’s boost was badly needed.
