Matt Barton added a new chapter to his fairytale Wimbledon debut with the most momentous victory of his career carrying him into the second round.<\/p>\n
The Australian qualifier finally prevailed on Thursday<\/span><\/span> afternoon, winning 6-7(7) 7-6(5) 6-3 6-7(5) 14-12 over Frenchman Albano Olivetti in a marathon match spanning three days and last just over four hours.<\/p>\n The epic victory \u2013 his first in the main draw at a Grand Slam tournament \u2013 set up a clash with American 18th seed John Isner on Friday<\/span><\/span> and earned Barton a guaranteed pay day of \u00a350,000 ($A90,500) and provisionally lifts the 24-year-old to a career-high ranking of No.187 in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was ridiculous. I can\u2019t believe it. I\u2019m still shocked by the win,\u201d Barton said.<\/p>\n Barton\u2019s status as the tournament\u2019s biggest underdog may have been stolen by world No.772 Marcus Willis, who captivated the Wimbledon crowds in losing to Roger Federer on Centre Court on Wednesday<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n But his victory remains one of extreme perseverance for the world No.246, having briefly retired from the professional circuit to take up a personal coaching role after being sidelined with Osgood-Schlatter disease in his knee.<\/p>\n While Barton initially feared the retirement could be permanent, it proved the catalyst for his career revival.<\/p>\n The break freshened him up and convinced him to get back on tour but torn ligaments in his ankle, which ensured a further seven-month injury layoff, was another hurdle.<\/p>\n It all came to a head, in front of his parents, girlfriend and cousin in Court 10, as he took victory via a double fault \u2013 Olivetti\u2019s 17th of the match \u2013 and collapsed face first on the famous Wimbledon grass, overcome with relief.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do. I\u2019ve never been in a situation like that. I was just relieved and couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d he said of the emotional reaction.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great feeling for me. I\u2019m stoked. Can\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n And in keeping with his career arc, Barton did it the hard way.<\/p>\n He squandered three match points, blowing six break points in the fourth set, before finally closing out the win.<\/p>\n Barton and Olivetti slugged it out for a monster 85-minute fifth set which started on Wednesday<\/span><\/span> night and finished Thursday<\/span><\/span> afternoon as both proved nigh-on impossible to break.<\/p>\n Olivetti, credited with having the second-fastest serve in history at 257.5kmh, sent down 56 thundering aces to Barton\u2019s 33.<\/p>\n But crucially the Australian had just nine double-faults, offered only one break point \u2013 which he saved \u2013 and had 105 unreturned serves compared to Olivetti\u2019s 99.<\/p>\n Barton believes facing Olivetti is the perfect preparation for the monster serves set to be delivered by the 2.08-metre Isner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matt Barton added a new chapter to his fairytale Wimbledon debut with the most momentous victory of his career carrying him into the second round. The Australian qualifier finally prevailed on Thursday afternoon, winning 6-7(7) 7-6(5) 6-3 6-7(5) 14-12 over Frenchman Albano Olivetti in a marathon match spanning three days and last just over four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5788,"featured_media":11867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5788"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}