After five hours and 26 minutes of battling, Daniel Altmaier crossed the finish line against No. 8 seed Jannik Sinner Thursday at Roland Garros. The German saved two match points in the fourth set, then stood his ground in a dramatic final game to advance to the third round, 6-7 (0), 7-6 (7), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5. Our visual story:
Sinner’s two chances to shut the door came on his serve at 5-4 in the fourth set. The match points were non-consecutive.
Altmaier was broken the first time he served for the clash in the decider, but immediately claimed a re-break to give himself another shot at 6-5.
He came out firing with big cuts and rushes to the net in building a 40-0 lead.
But Sinner refused to go away, erasing three match points and later a fourth.
The world No. 9 created three opportunities to get himself into a decisive tie-break. The final one saw Sinner come forward to a winning position, only to be pushed back behind the baseline…
… and he lost the tense exchange. A racquet slam followed and the window soon closed.
An unreturned serve capped off Altmaier’s incredible five-set victory.
Having received an extended standing ovation from the Lenglen crowd, Altmaier was overcome with emotion when he began his on-court interview with Marion Bartoli. Tears of joy are the best kind.