Marcos was made to work very hard for his place in the second round of the Australian Open, battling past Spanish left-hander Albert Ramos 6-7(0), 7-6(4), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in a match lasting four hours and 15 minutes on Monday night in Melbourne.
Ramos clinched a tight first set before immediately getting a break of serve at the start of the second set. Marcos reeled off four straight games to halt the Spaniard’s momentum, but was pegged back himself when Ramos levelled at 4-4. Marcos kept his focus, though, and won the second-set tie-break to draw level in the match.
Marcos broke through in the seventh game of the second set with a backhand winner up the line – one of 61 winners he hit in the contest – and served out the set to love to take a two-sets-to-one lead.
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Momentum swung back and forth in the fourth set. Ramos made the first move, breaking for a 3-1 lead, but immediately surrendered his advantage courtesy of superb scrambling and tenacity from Marcos, which enabled him to get the break back.
Marcos fended off several break points to level at 3-3 – indeed, he saved 15 of the 19 break points he faced throughout the match – but Ramos hit his stride and reeled off the next eight points to take a 5-3 lead, closing out the fourth set to force a decider.
With Ramos beginning to tire, Marcos drew on his hard-earned energy reserves and engineered a 3-1 lead in the fifth set as the Spaniard netted a backhand. He had his first match point opportunity in the eighth game, but Ramos produced three clutch forehands to hold his serve and force Marcos to serve it out.
The Spaniard had one last attempt to derail Marcos, but failed to convert his break point opportunity and a forehand winner brought up a second match point for Marcos, which he duly took with a backhand volley winner.
Marcos goes onto face Japan’s Tatsuma Ito, who also needed five sets to defeat Australian John Millman. That match will be played on Wednesday.
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