JACK Draper vomited into a courtside bin after overcoming struggles with the Melbourne heat to defeat Marcos Giron at the Australian Open in his first ever five-set match.
It is a measure of how inexperienced the 22-year-old still is at the highest level that he had never previously played a match that went the distance, and he looked in serious trouble at two sets to one down against American Giron.
But Draper, whose father Roger is the former chief executive of Warrington Wolves, has been working hard on his physical conditioning and it paid off as he fought back to win 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-0 6-2 after three hours and 20 minutes.
As soon as he had shaken hands with Giron after a final gruelling rally he ran to the bin to be sick, and it was several minutes before he was able to walk off the court.
He will now have to try to recover for a second-round match, against 14th seed Tommy Paul, on Thursday, when temperatures are at least forecast to be much lower.
It was early afternoon when Draper and Giron took to a baking Court Eight under a cloudless sky.
The British number four only arrived in Melbourne on Saturday night after reaching his second ATP Tour final in Adelaide, meaning he was full of confidence but also potentially jaded.
The match was dominated by punishing rallies from the start, with Draper getting the better of five straight breaks of serve and narrowly hanging on to his advantage.
But the momentum began to swing Giron’s way in the second set as the physicality of the match took its toll on Draper.
After Giron levelled the match, the 22-year-old called the trainer to have his pulse taken and blood pressure checked.
He carried on but was unable to chase down the sort of shots he had got to in the first set and his race looked run when Giron opened up a two sets to one lead.
He took another off-court break to change his clothes and came out for the fourth set with a game plan to up the aggression and shorten the points.
It worked superbly, a mixture of thumping groundstokes and feathered drop shots taking California’s Giron, who had appeared untroubled by the heat, out of his comfort zone.
Draper raced through the set, putting him into uncharted territory, but, with shade finally creeping across the court, both his game and his body just about held up to carry him through to his first victory at Melbourne Park.
Draper missed out on a first ATP Tour title, losing to Jiri Lehecka in the final of the Adelaide International last week.
The 22-year-old finished last season by making his maiden final in Sofia, where he was beaten by wily French veteran Adrian Mannarino.
It was another impressive week for Draper in South Australia but he was unable to build on a good start against Lehecka, losing out 4-6 6-4 6-3.
He looked increasingly tired towards the end.
The only real question mark surrounding whether Draper can reach the very top of the game is his body, with a succession of injuries stalling his progress last season.
His many talents were on display in the opening set against his fellow 22-year-old, with Draper breaking Lehecka’s serve to love in the seventh game.
The clean-hitting Czech, who reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open last year, was hanging on in the second set but pulled off a miraculous volley winner at 4-4 0-30 and then took advantage of a nervous game from Draper to draw level.
The British number four became increasingly frustrated at the start of the decider, kicking his racket and screaming into his towel after dropping serve again.
He was unable to take three chances to get back on serve and it was Lehecka who got his hands on a first ATP Tour title.
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