Uber rides, border patrol, airport naps: Max Purcell's rocky road to W&S Open Round of 16
MASON, Ohio − Max Purcell was full of adrenaline when he walked into the players' lounge Tuesday night following his straight-set victory over Lloyd Harris in the first round of the Western & Southern Open.
"Feeling pretty good right now," the 25-year-old Australian told The Enquirer.
Why wouldn't he?
Well, unlike most of the world's top tennis stars in Cincinnati this week, Purcell didn't have time to enjoy the lavish upgrades for the players this year at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. In fact, he didn't even get to warmup.
When his doubles journey ended at the Canadian Open last Friday, Purcell started his trek to Mason, where he was scheduled to play in the first round of singles qualifying on Saturday.
To say nothing went according to plan would be an understatement. He couldn't find a flight and a rental car was out of the question.
"I wasn't really keen to finish a match around 6 p.m. in Toronto, drive for seven hours and play the next day," Purcell said. "My coach has never driven over here, either."
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The next step was a four-hour Uber ride from Toronto to the Windsor, Ontario/Detroit border. He was two miles from at least being in the right country as his Western & Southern Open match, but the Uber wouldn't cross the border, and Purcell and his coach were left on the side of the road.
"No one would take us (to Detroit)," he said.
After being turned down by multiple taxis, one finally took him into the Motor City after midnight on Saturday morning and an hour of interrogation from border patrol.
His initial search for an Uber from Detroit to Cincinnati was promising but came up short.
"The (Uber) app would let you (request a driver)," Purcell explained. "People would say 'yes,' see where you're going and just cancel it when they got here."
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Purcell ditched plans for an Uber and was able to book a flight to Cincinnati that left at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning. He checked into the airport hotel at 1:45 a.m., slept for four hours, then was back in time to board.
He arrived in Cincinnati without warming up and beat No. 12 seed qualifier Luca Van Assche in three sets after dropping the first. On Sunday, he won a three-hour marathon match over Alexei Popyrin to make the main singles draw. After beating Harris on Tuesday, he scored the biggest win of his career with a three-set victory over No. 7 ranked Casper Ruud on Wednesday to make the Round of 16.
That's not all. After scoring his first-ever win over a top-10 player, he was still in the tournament in the doubles draw. Purcell, a Wimbledon doubles champion in 2022, and partner Andrey Rublev defeated the tandem of Lloyd Glasspool/Harri Heliovaara 7-6 (10), 7-5.
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Add it all up, Purcell has played 9 hours, 40 minutes worth of matches in five days. Once a singles qualifier and a longshot to make any noise in the tournament, he's in the Round of 16 in both the singles and doubles draw.
Running on fumes and an underdog mindset, Purcell will face Swiss wild card Stan Wawrinka in the singles on Thursday afternoon for a spot in the quarterfinals. In the night session, Purcell/Rublev take on No. 6 Santiago Gonzalez/Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the doubles Round of 16.
"I just want it that bad. Every point − the same thing, the same routine," Purcell said. "If I end up dying on my a** in the end, then dying on my a** it is.
"I've got a job to do."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Max Purcell's unlikely road to W&S Open singles, doubles Round of 16
