Already there might not be a better match this Adelaide International.
Before a crowd that generated an increasingly electric atmosphere and as the clock showed 11.12 pm, home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis was gone from his favourite tournament after the Serb Dusan Lajovic triumphed 3-6 6-1 6-4 in two hours and 10 minutes.
Kokkinakis did not play badly at all, but was ultimately thwarted by the restraining play of a man who stayed within distance always and waited for a diluting of the Australian firepower before moving his opponent around and, finally, moving in for the kill.
The likeable Lajovic was predictably generous immediately post-match.
“I know Thanasis is a crowd favourite here and thank you for supporting both sides,” he said.
Despite the late hour, Lajovic will not get any rest and is scheduled to play tomorrow evening in the doubles.
“My doubles partner (Romania’s Victor Vlad Cornea) is here and was putting pressure on me to be ready to play tomorrow,” he related.
Once the bludgeoning of the first set to Kokkinakis was done, it became a first- rate affair, the rallies longer and more dramatic, every sinew stretched to the max. Indeed, a change of balls every other game would have been kind so hard were both men smacking them.
The Aussie is used to such late beginnings although thankfully a 4am ending to match his Australian Open epic with Andy Murray a year ago in Melbourne was never on the cards.
This tournament matters to Kokkinakis, who won his sole ATP title here in 2022. Lajovic had beaten him twice before, but both clashes were back in 2015 and of no bearing whatsoever.
Kokkinakis is ranked world No.68, 16 places below Lajovic who has been as high as No.23 in the world rankings and picked up an ATP 250 title in Bosnia last year, where he saw off Novak Djokovic and Andrey Rublev.
He and Kokkinakis are mates and were talking about a night out in Adelaide pre-tournament before Kokkinakis – the ATP official draw master – picked them out together on Saturday lunchtime.
An increasing rarity in the men’s game, Lajovic plays with a swinging single-handed backhand which he patently relishes striking, not as meaty as the stroke famously favoured by Stan Wawrinka but aesthetically near perfect.
The antidote was Aussie firepower, blunt, raw and penetrating and with a prolonged let-up only in the second set.
The match was in sync with the early arena feel, hardly a seat spare in the stands, the atmosphere vibrant and expectant, music pumping pre-match. The blue and red flags that blocked views across all sections of the stadium last year when Lajovic’s countryman Novak Djokovic held court were absent and the crowd was less partisan and more generous, as Lajovic noted.
The detail: Kokkinakis raced to a 5-2 lead, the first set done in 38 minutes, 6-3 and hardly a drop of sweat. It was business-like, aggressive, a heads-down no-frills approach from the Aussie. Not once did he proffer any impression he even knew he crowd was there.
Two blistering forehands that smacked the net cord before jumping long saw Kokkinakis surrender his serve for a 3-1 lead to Lajovic in the second set and with a break point squandered in the next game, the set fell predictably to the Serb, Kokkinakis dropping another service game to love. It would never have happened 30 minutes before.
As the PA blasted out ‘Sweet Caroline’ before the final set, the crowd was bubbly still, but the former belief was noticeably no longer intact.
At 1-0 up in the third, Kokkinakis missed a break point and suddenly was broken himself to 2-1 down before pulling it back to 3-3. A service game drop to 0-40 looked like the end but Kokkinakis, somehow, pulled it back only to drop serve to go down 4-5 shortly afterwards and one game later, the match.
A night to remember.