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Alejandro Davidovich Fokina momentarily stops playing after time ...

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina momentarily stops playing after time
The match had already been going for almost five hours when he began the boycott at around 1am.

Spanish world No.66 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has defeated Canadian 29th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the same match he threatened to boycott at one point in the enthralling fifth set at the Australian Open.

With the scores tight at 2-3 in the deciding fifth set, Davidovich was given a time violation by the chair umpire.

Furious at the decision, the Spaniard approached the official to remonstrate, before later refusing to play on in the late-night match.

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The epic contest had already gone for four hours and 37 minutes, which included time spent moving courts due to a rowdy crowd in a neighbouring match, but Davidovich didn’t want to budge.

A second official then stepped in to try to solve the dispute as Auger-Aliassime put a jumper on during the lengthy delay.

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Play eventually resumed and, in a cruel twist of fate for the Canadian, momentum shifted towards Davidovich, who immediately broke Auger-Aliassime.

He went on to win the fifth set and claim a 6-7(9), 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 victory in the early hours of Thursday morning.

That was a number of hours after the match was moved from court eight to court seven because of a rowdy French-supporting crowd nearby, who were watching Arthur Cazaux’s clash against Brit Jacob Fearnley.

The match was moved to court seven.The match was moved to court seven.
The match was moved to court seven. Credit: The First Serve

And Fearnley wasn’t the only Brit who had to block out the chaos of a raucous crowd on night four of the tournament.

Jack Draper said he channelled the calm of former Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou as he revealed how he handled the “abuse” that came his way on a hectic night.

And after taming one home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis in a late-night five-setter on John Cain Arena, the No.15 seed says he’ll welcome the Melbourne crowds pumping up the volume against him in the third round when he faces another ‘tennis Ashes’ battle against Sydneysider Aleksandar Vukic.

Draper admitted after his win that it had been “a tough atmosphere to deal with” as he battled to subdue the challenge from Kokkinakis before finally prevailing 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 over four-and-a-half hours.

“But I had a little bit of fun back too,” he added, recognising how he wound up the crowd when cupping his hands to his ears after breaking Kokkinakis to love as the Adelaide man was serving for the match at 5-4 in the decider.

“It was an electric atmosphere. Obviously getting quite a lot of abuse from the crowd in between serves the back of the court and all that sort of stuff,” he said.

Britain's Jack Draper has over overcome a hostile crowd to advance to the AO third round. Britain's Jack Draper has over overcome a hostile crowd to advance to the AO third round.
Britain's Jack Draper has over overcome a hostile crowd to advance to the AO third round. Credit: AAP

When asked specifically what had been directed at him, Draper added: “They were saying some interesting things for sure. I don’t want to say. With the whistling and the talking, when you are about to serve, it’s really difficult.”

But Man United football fan Draper says he saw it all as “entertainment”, recalling how, just a few nights earlier on Sunday, he had watched on television the FA Cup tie between Tamworth and Tottenham when the Australian visiting boss Postecoglou was getting roundly abused by the home fans on the touchline.

“Everyone was getting on Ange’s back the other night, and he just stood there taking it. It’s good sport. It’s entertainment,” shrugged Draper.

“Sometimes you don’t want to sort of rile them or give it back. But it gave me energy doing that. It’s nice to sort of just give it like a bit of an ear or something like that.I have a thick skin. It’s fun.”

Actually, Postecoglou revealed on Tuesday that some of it hadn’t been fun at all.

He had not been happy with some of the comments aimed at him in Tamworth, saying: “The stuff I heard was pretty vile and detestable, and getting things thrown at me, not a great experience, but we’re kind of expected to be the bigger person.

“I would have loved to have turned around and not be the bigger person in that moment, but you deal with it and go on.”

Next up for Draper is Vukic, who enjoyed the best win of his career by knocking out 22nd seed, American Sebastian Korda — and the Brit is ready for more baiting.

Asked if the more Australians cheered against him, the better he would play, Draper, who’s building a reputation as a bit of a grand slam Aussie-killer following his win over Alex de Minaur at the US Open, smiled: “Yeah, exactly.”

- With AAP

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