WHAT HAPPENED: Unseeded Australian John Millman kept his cool on another warm afternoon and was not distracted by the antics across the net, to beat No. 14 seed Fabio Fognini, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, on Thursday to equal his best US Open showing, reaching the third round for the second consecutive year.
Only at the end of the two hour and 40 minute match, when Fognini slammed a forehand way over the baseline, did Millman show much emotion by pumping his fist. Otherwise he was unflappable in the face of the outbursts of the emotional Italian, who slammed his racket on the court several times, and sailed a ball over and out of Court 5 and against the back fence.
The match stat sheet pretty much told the story of the first career match-up between the two veterans: Millman, 29, made 34 errors and had 13 winners. Fognini, 31, committed a whopping 78 errors offset by just 30 winners. He had six double faults, made only 57 percent of his first serves and lost his serve nine times.
Fognini made 18 errors in the opening set, winning just eight points in the 20-minute stanza. But the Davis Cup veteran, who has enjoyed a steady 2018 season by reaching the Australian Open and French Open fourth rounds, battled back in the second set to even the match.
In the pivotal third set, Millman raced to a 3-1 lead only to lose his serve on a double fault, making it 3-3. However, he bounced back, breaking serve for 5-4 and then clinched the set on a bang-bang exchange at the net with a reflex backhand volley winner.
After a 10-minute heat policy break before the start of the fourth set, Millman reeled off the final six games of the match against a dispirited Fognini.
WHAT IT MEANS: Millman is in the midst of a resurgent year that has seen his ranking climb nearly 70 places from last year, to No. 55. He made his first ATP Tour final this year at Budapest and the quarterfinal at Eastbourne.
Millman has done this despite being hobbled by a back and hip injury that forced him out of several tournaments earlier in the season, as well as his last outing in the Cincinnati qualifying. He did not appear to be slowed by the injury during this match.
MATCH POINT: Australia, once a major tennis power, now has two men into the third round, with No. 30 Nick Kyrigios also winning. Fellow countryman Alex de Minaur plays later in the day.
Eleven Australian men, including all-time greats Rod Laver, John Newcombe and Ken Rosewall, have won a total of 18 U.S. national men’s singles titles. But no Australian man has won since Lleyton Hewitt, in 2001.
