Ernests Gulbis has been knocked out of the Australian Open at the first-round stage following a dramatic five-set defeat at the hands of Thanasi Kokkinakis in a mammoth battle at Melbourne Park.
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The 11th seed looked on top and had four match points to progress through, but it was to be the underdog, ranked at 147th in the world, who claimed a 5-7 6-0 1-6 7-6(2) 8-6 win to advance into the last 64.
Despite losing his serve in the second game, Gulbis managed to battle through to see out what was a tight opener in front of a packed crowd, which proved to set the tone for the remainder of a match which stretched over four hours.
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Far from being disheartened by the early setback, Kokkinakis regrouped and claimed a whitewash victory in the second set, winning three breaks of serve to brush aside Gulbis.
The Latvian managed to take a potentially pivotal third set, however, capitalising on four losses of service game from his opponent to take control of proceedings.
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It looked to be all over for the Australian wildcard, although having incredibly survived four match points he managed to take the set to a tie break, where he held his serve to prevail 7-2.
That provided a thrilling decider which took the clash into its fourth and final hour, and much like the contest as a whole the set remained tight throughout.
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Both players held their serve right up until the 14th game, when Kokkinakis was able to hold his nerve to edge out his more illustrious opponent and claim a dramatic upset on home turf before receiving a standing ovation from the Margaret Court crowd.
Daniel Lewis
