Australia’s No.3-ranked player Marinko Matosevic won a thrilling match against Frenchman Julien Benneteau on Monday in the first round of the Brisbane International tennis tournament.
Matosevic’s 5-7 6-4 7-6(4) victory at Pat Rafter Arena was his first triumph in the main draw of a top-tier event in his home country at his 10th attempt.
The main thing is the relief. I felt like I should have won in straight sets; I didn’t,” said Matosevic.
“Then I almost blew it in the third and I held on. Yeah, very happy to win.
“It is important, because obviously I didn’t want to go into the Australian Open winless again. It’s happened the previous three, four years, so it’s important.”
The 28-year-old Victorian screamed in ecstasy after his nail-biting victory in a third-set tiebreak after two hours and 41 minutes of see-sawing tennis.
Matosevic, who reached a career-high world ranking of No.39 in February, hasn’t won a Grand Slam singles match from 11 attempts.
He now holds a 2-0 record over Benneteau after beating the Frenchman at the China Open in October.
Matosevic is ranked No.61 in the world behind fellow Australians Lleyton Hewitt (No.60) and Bernard Tomic (No.51).
Between now and his next match the Australian will be taking care of a shoulder injury that cut short his 2013 season.
“I was on my way to finish another year top 50. I felt like I was playing some good tennis. I lost to Ferrer and I hurt it in Beijing.
“Then I took five weeks off from tennis and I came back and tried to play and it hurt after four days … It was pretty serious.”
Matosevic next plays the winner of Monday afternoon’s clash between American Sam Querrey and Russian seventh seed Dmitry Tursunov.
> Purchase Brisbane International 2014 tickets