By Mitch Phillips
LONDON (Reuters) – Chile’s Cristian Garin showed amazing tenacity to come from two sets and 3-0 down and save two match points as he beat Australian Alex de Minaur in a hugely entertaining five-set slug fest on Monday to reach his first grand slam quarter-final
Garin eventually triumphed 2-6 5-7 7-6 (3) 6-4 7-6(6) after four hours 34 minutes of superb tennis that brought a standing ovation from Wimbledon’s packed Number Two Court.
The two men hammered at each other, with only a handful of first-serve winners but with a crowd-pleasing sprinkling of classy drop shots and volleys in among the relentlessly accurate groundstrokes and lung-busting chasing to reach them.
De Minaur, who does not know the meaning of a lost cause, seemed to be cruising as he took the first two sets and led 3-0 in the third but Garin showed great spirit to fight back via a tiebreak and then set up a decider.
Garin saved two match points at 4-5 to take the match to the new “first to 10” final-set tiebreak, where he came through to set up a last-eight meeting with either Nick Kyrgios or Brandon Nakashima.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Clare Fallon)
