It was quite an exciting day at Melbourne Park, where the Australian Open 2024 is currently taking place.
One of today's noteworthy men's singles matches for viewers around the world featured third round clash between Adrian Mannarino and Ben Shelton. The French faced off against the promising 16th-ranked Shelton.
Despite Mannarino entering the game with the burden of having played two previous five-set matches in this tournament, everyone anticipated Shelton's smooth progress.
Mannarino's physical strain became evident as he fell behind by 1-2 sets. However, he summoned his best game in the final couple of sets, enduring a marathon match lasting over 4.5 hours to overcome Shelton and advance to the next round.
Before the game, Mannarino had conveyed to the interviewer and organisers that if he emerged victorious, he preferred not to be informed about his next-round opponent. The interviewer respected and honoured this request, yet had numerous questions, particularly regarding Mannarino's remarkable feat of winning three consecutive 5-set matches in the Australian Open 2024 so far.
In fact, he presented a statistic to the Frenchman, stating that he had won more five-set games after reaching the age of 34 than he did in his entire career before that. "What's the key?" he inquired. Mannarino took his time before offering a whimsical response, announcing to everyone, "I started tequila," eliciting laughter from the interviewer and the audience, followed by a round of applause.
Remember, he defeated Stan Wawrinka in the first round and then Jaume Munar in the following round. Today marked his first encounter with a seeded opponent in the competition, and once again, he emerged victorious.
He is now in line to face the top seed, Novak Djokovic, in Round 4 of the competition.