Alexei Popyrin out of Australian Open after another five-set marathon

Alexei Popyrin is out of the Australian Open after another gruelling five-set match, this time ending in defeat to South African Lloyd Harris.

Australian wildcard Popyrin was coming off an almost four-hour upset of 13th seed David Goffin when he ran into world number 91 Harris on Thursday afternoon, losing 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3.

The pair went set for set throughout the match, but Popyrin’s almost seven hours on court through the first two rounds started to show with some fatigue late in the decider.

He fought through six deuces at 2-3 in the fifth set, but Harris eventually broke on his fourth chance of the game.

Popyrin slowly trudged to his bag to get a new racket and it was obvious he did not have the energy left in his legs to fight back again.

Harris held serve to love to move to 5-2 and conserved energy through the next game before serving out the match just as the clock ticked over into the fourth hour of the match.

The second-round exit is actually 113th-ranked Popyrin’s worst result in Melbourne since 2018, having reached the third round for the previous two years, while Harris has reached the third round of a slam for the first time.