Britain’s Jack Draper fought through his third successive five-set epic at the Australian Open to tee up a blockbuster meeting with Spanish superstar Carlos Alcaraz in the fourth round.
Draper, seeded 15th, won 6-4 2-6 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (10-8) against home hope Aleksandar Vukic in another late-night thriller.
The British number one had already quelled a partisan Australian crowd with a comeback win over Thanasi Kokkinakis on Wednesday – and showed more of his monster mentality two days later.
Draper, 23, led by a break in the decider before Vukic – who belied his ranking of 86th in the world – refused to wilt and forced a match tie-break.
A throaty roar from Draper signalled his delight – and relief – at coming through in almost four hours just before 1am local time.
“I’m very, very proud of my efforts from the physical part of things,” said Draper, a 2024 US Open semi-finalist who is playing his first tournament of the season after a hip injury.
“I’m obviously not feeling incredibly fresh right now, but I’ll recover again. I’ll do my best to go again for another one.”
Draper, who is the only Briton left in the men’s singles, will look to end 21-year-old third seed Alcaraz’s bid to complete a career Grand Slam on Sunday.
Draper’s childhood rival Jacob Fearnley, who has enjoyed a meteoric rise since turning professional in April, was beaten by German second seed Alexander Zverev earlier on Friday.
Emma Raducanu is the only Briton left in the women’s singles and plays second seed Iga Swiatek on Saturday at 00:30 GMT.