The majority of those that had tickets to watch Boris Becker take on Omar Camporese in the third round of the Australian Open 24 years ago today would have been expecting the German to record a routine victory.
After all, Italy's Camporese headed into the tournament unseeded, while world number two Becker was already a six-time Grand Slam champion.
So, when the 23-year-old opened up a two-set lead courtesy of tie-break triumphs, it seemed only a matter of time before he booked his place in the fourth round of the competition.
However, Camporese, who was yet to win an ATP title, rallied in the third set. He afforded Becker just 10 points on his way to reducing the arrears to two sets to one.
It appeared that Becker had regained the momentum in the fourth set and he had four chances to break Camporese in the ninth game, which would have left him serving for the match. The Italian held firm, though, as he claimed a break of his own to send the encounter into a deciding fifth set.
It was a set that went with serve for 20 games, when Becker broke and then had three match points in the next game, only for Camporese to save them all. Again Becker got the better of the Camporese serve for a 12-11 lead, but once more his Italian opponent showed some grit to level up the score.
But, when Becker broke yet again to open up a 13-12 advantage, he finally served out to win the encounter, producing an ace on match point.
"I feel pretty good, but in the fifth set I was just trying to hold on. After leading, two sets to love, you feel, what happened? This thing is drifting away," the victor told reporters.
The game, which ended 7-6(4) 7-6(5) 0-6 4-6 14-12 in Becker's favour, lasted five hours and 11 minutes, which was an Australian Open record until the 2012 final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
Becker went on to be crowned the champion in Melbourne that year for the first time in his career thanks to a 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 win over Ivan Lendl in the final.
Liam Apicella
