Felix Auger-Aliassime is the final tennis famous person to fall sufferer to the rumoured “Netflix curse” on the Australian Open, with Canada’s sixth seed knocked out within the fourth spherical by unheralded 21-year-old Jiri Lehecka.
Key factors:
Ten gamers featured prominently in promotional materials for the primary five-episode run of documentary sequence Break LevelThree of them, together with Australians Nick Kyrgios and Ajla Tomljanović, withdrew earlier than the matchAuger-Aliassime completed 2022 as probably the most in-form gamers on the lads’s tour, with three straight titles in October
Auger-Aliassime gained the primary set however 71st-ranked Lehecka bounced again to take the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/3) on Margaret Court docket Area.
The 22-year-old, who completed 2022 in scorching kind with titles in Florence, Antwerp and Basel, was the final of the ten gamers nonetheless vying for the title in Melbourne who featured prominently within the first 5 episodes of the Netflix documentary sequence Break Level, which went stay earlier than the match.
Auger-Aliassime disregarded the “curse” earlier than the match towards Lehecka, who will face Greek third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in his first main quarterfinal.
“I assumed it was humorous,” he stated after reaching the fourth spherical.
“I do not know. I do not suppose it is related … Perhaps the gamers that misplaced, perhaps they do really feel prefer it’s related, in some way. I do not suppose they do. I do not suppose it is related, anyhow.”
The opposite gamers included Australians Nick Kyrgios and Ajla Tomljanović, who each withdrew from their dwelling slam with knee accidents.
Fellow Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis additionally appeared within the promotional materials for the documentary sequence from the identical group that made Method 1-focused Drive To Survive, and he misplaced from two units to like up towards Andy Murray within the second spherical.
Murray additionally took down Italian thirteenth seed Matteo Berrettini within the first spherical, whereas the opposite obvious examples of the curse have been world quantity 16 Paula Badosa (damage withdrawal), Wimbledon and US Open finalist Ons Jabeur (second spherical), French and US Open runner-up Casper Ruud (second spherical), US males’s primary Taylor Fritz (second spherical) and sixth seed Maria Sakkari (third spherical).
The lady who beat Sakkari within the third spherical, 87th-ranked Lin Zhu, was taken out within the fourth by 2012 and 2013 Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, who reached the quarters of the match for the primary time since 2016.
The pair spent 2 hours and 40 minutes on Rod Laver Area on Sunday evening, as Azarenka gained the match 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
It is just Azarenka’s second journey previous the spherical of 16 from the previous 25 majors, together with her solely different deep run ending within the closing of the 2020 US Open.
Netflix will launch 5 extra episodes of the sequence in the course of the yr, which can put a shiver down the backbone of the extra superstitious gamers heading into Wimbledon.
#NetflixCurse victims
Australians Nick Kyrgios and Ajla Tomljanovic, and world quantity 16 Paula Badosa withdrew earlier than the Australian Open2021 Wimbledon finalist and thirteenth seed Matteo Berrettini misplaced to 66th-ranked Andy Murray in first sphericalEighth seed Taylor Fritz crushed by wildcard Alexei Popyrin in second sphericalWimbledon and US Open runner-up and second seed Ons Jabeur misplaced to 86th-ranked Marketa Vondrousova in second sphericalSecond seed Casper Ruud bounced out by Thirty ninth-ranked Jenson Brooksby in spherical twoAussie Thanasi Kokkinakis misplaced to Murray from two units up in second sphericalSixth seed Maria Sakkari misplaced to 87th-ranked Lin Zhu in third sphericalSixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime knocked out in fourth spherical by world quantity 71 Jiri Lehecka
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