By Marc McGowan
Australia’s Chris O’Connell has not ruled out playing a drastically different style to normal as he plots how to upset the tennis tour’s most in-form men’s star.
The world No.66 continued his career-best run at a Masters 1000 tournament in Miami on Monday, edging out giant American wildcard Martin Damm jnr in two tiebreakers to earn a last-16 shot at Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner.
Chris O’Connell, pictured at this year’s Australian Open, is enjoying a career-best run at the Miami Masters.Credit: Getty Images
O’Connell, 29, had only one win from six previous matches at Masters level before beating rising Brit Jack Draper in the first round at Indian Wells this month, and is now in uncharted territory.
He swung open the door of opportunity with a brilliant 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) defeat of 22nd-ranked American Frances Tiafoe in Miami’s second round on Sunday before rallying from a break down in the second set to oust Damm 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) a day later.
O’Connell will get a day off to prepare for arguably the biggest match of his career against Sinner, who the Sydneysider stunned 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 in their only prior meeting in Atlanta in 2021.
Sinner was ranked No.23 at the time, but is now behind only Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz after a torrid run of form that started after last year’s US Open and peaked with his Melbourne Park triumph in January.
Speaking to this masthead less than an hour after outlasting Damm, O’Connell said he was “super excited” at the prospect of locking horns with Sinner, who boasts an 18-1 win-loss record this year.
“I’ve watched plenty of him play, and I think he’ll know what to expect from me because we played each other before, but that was a few years ago, and he’s more established now and at the top of the game,” he said.
“I’ve got to believe [I can beat him], but he’s going to be super pumped up because I did get him last time ... I don’t have too much experience playing these top-five guys – I’ve played [Daniil] Medvedev a couple of times at the US Open – but they’re just on another level; [they] fight for every point, and give you nothing.
O’Connell is becoming more comfortable facing the tour’s titans.Credit: Getty Images
“I’ve got to be super locked in. I know it sounds simple, but I’ve got to win the big points – and that’s the tough thing because it’s what these guys do so well. They’re super clutch.”
Alex de Minaur, the No.9 seed, followed countryman O’Connell into the fourth round with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 dispatching of 24th seed Jan-Lennard Struff on Tuesday. His next opponent is Hungary’s Fabin Marozsan, who ousted another Australian, Alexei Popyrin, 7-5, 6-3.
O’Connell shares the same coach – former top-40 player Marinko Matosevic – as countryman Jordan Thompson, who captured his maiden ATP title in Los Cabos, Mexico, last month.
Thompson told this masthead ahead of last year’s US Open that a frank chat with Matosevic ahead of his blockbuster Wimbledon clash with Djokovic saw them unleash him as a net-rusher to bolster his hopes.
“We both knew that if I played my normal game; I was going to get killed,” Thompson said. “We went through all the stats, and it was pretty clear that I had to try and change drastically to try and win. I mean, my best chance that day was in tiebreakers. I wasn’t that far away from getting two of them.”
O’Connell said he, too, would defer to Matosevic on his tactics against Sinner. “I’m sure Marinko will probably say something similar [to what he did to Thompson].”
O’Connell was confident a deep tournament run was in him after facing – and being competitive against – a string of top-liners this year, including Seb Korda, Ben Shelton, plus top-tenners Hubert Hurkacz and Alex Zverev at his past two events.
Jannik Sinner won this year’s Australian Open men’s singles title.Credit: Eddie Jim
His victory over Tiafoe was his second top-30 scalp of the season, on top of eliminating Struff in Doha in mid-February, and he will make his top-50 debut if he topples Sinner.
“I’m super happy, and I’m playing some good tennis this year, so it’s great to be into the round of 16 of a Masters event. It’s a huge achievement,” O’Connell said.
“It’s a good and bad thing to play those guys – you just don’t want to play them so early, like I have been – but it’s a good experience to play top-10, 20 guys, and now I’ve got another one in Sinner, who’s in hot form, so thankfully, it’s the round of 16.
“I remember I got a wildcard into the AO and played [Grigor] Dimitrov in 2017, and I felt a bit intimidated then, but this is my third year solely playing [ATP] Tour events, so I’m more comfortable being around these guys.”
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