World No.13 a big win for O’Connell
CHRIS O’Connell must be sick of people talking about him cleaning boats to pay the bills a few years back – but he’ll gladly retell it now.
Just don’t expect him back there any time soon.
The boy from Sydney’s northern beaches is marching into the third round at the Australian Open with a guaranteed $221,000 after dispatching world No.13 Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 6-4.
Schwartzman’s scalp is the best of O’Connell’s career to date, topping his victories over then-No.23 Jannik Sinner in July and top-40 German Jan-Lennard Struff at last year’s Open.
Standing in O’Connell’s way to a fourth-round berth is giant American serve-volleyer Maxime Cressy, who ousted Czech qualifier Tomas Machac in four sets.
The Australian wildcard, 27, has been riddled with injuries since he was a teenager, and had his momentum stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic as he was on the verge of the top 100.
But O’Connell – despite admitting a couple of years ago to panicking about his career flying by without a breakthrough – has never given up.
This week’s success owes to his extraordinary resilience, with ankle and groin injuries last year just the latest hurdles. In between those setbacks, O’Connell continued to show why good judges believe he will be Australia’s next top-100 player.
Schwartzman won’t take any convincing after what he witnessed on a boisterous court three on Thursday.
O’Connell expected the diminutive Argentine star to “make a million balls” after he booked the clash with a fourset first-round victory over Frenchman Hugo Gaston.
That’s exactly what he got in a titanic opening set that lasted onean hour and 24 minutes after Schwartzman failed to serve it out in the 10th game.
O’Connell’s laidback nature off the court is mirrored on it, where his admirable ability to absorb the repeated pressure he found himself under was a significant factor in the result.
Knowing Schwartzman’s staying power, the Sydneysider was determined from the outset to play aggressively and try and push his former top-10 opponent around.
More costly than anything else for Schwartzman was his double fault to concede a four-deuce game at 5-4 in the first set, after he blew three set points. O’Connell survived two more break points in the next game, then fell behind 1-3 in the tiebreak but kept bouncing back every time, before flashing a brilliant forehand winner to go a set up.
The Aussie raced through the second set and was soon a break up in the third before a minor stumble. O’Connell broke Schwartzman for a fourth time, and then completed the job on serve.