Lucky Loser Mmoh explains how he almost left Australian Open early

Saturday, 21 January 2023 at 01:40

Updated at Sunday, 12 January 2025 at 17:07

byErik Virostko

The story that Michael Mmoh is writing at the 2023 Australian Open is one of the most beautiful tennis stories, and it seems that he still has some ink to write with.

The ATP World No. 107 player had to play in the qualifying as the ninth seed, and despite winning the first two matches comfortably, Mmoh eventually lost to Australian Aleksandar Vukic in the final of the qualifying.

However, thanks to a unique system used in tennis draws, he was able to enter the tournament again as a lucky loser after David Goffin's withdrawal.

The American explained how he got a call about becoming a lucky loser. He was watching an NFL match between the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When he got a call, he reacted very quickly.

"I was fully locked in on that game. Then all of a sudden I got a call from the ATP guy. Right when I saw the notification, I answered it right away. Like, literally. I have never answered a phone call so fast in my life. First ring, and I was on it."

Mmoh didn't have a lot of time to move to the court, and he explained the whole process and how the weather helped him along the way.

He had to battle hard, as Laurent Lokoli, who also had to go through the qualifying, pushed him to five sets. Eventually, Mmoh won the match 4-6, 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-2, even saving a match point in the third set.

"I literally just grabbed my bag, grabbed a bunch of match clothes. Luckily everything was kind of in there already. Went straight to the site. Also luckily, that match slowed down a little bit… Then another thing that went in my favour is I went basically straight to the match court, and then there was that heat delay. That kind of helped me."

"At that point I just knew, if he wasn't going to take the match, there had to be somebody to take the match. I could see that he was very nervous at that point. I felt like I was playing well, but just things weren't really going my way."

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"But I knew if I won that set, the momentum would have shifted. He would have been thinking about that moment, and I felt like I was the better player."

The 25-year-old also explained that maybe if there was some flight that would take him home, he might have missed out on the biggest chance of his life.

"At that point, [I thought I had] zero [chance]. At this point I was even talking to my fiancee, and she was like, ‘Why don't you fly out tonight?’ I was, like, ‘I would, but I don't even think there [are] flights.’ I'm here now. Like, what if I was at the airport and somehow I got a last-minute call? Then I would be screwed. So I've got to stay just this one afternoon basically."

"I don't know if I'm going to finally wake up or something. It just doesn't seem real. Like, the past 48 hours have been a complete whirlwind from going from being ready to go back home, booking a flight, packing my bags. I was supposed to leave yesterday. Now I'm here, and I just had the best win of my career. It just doesn't seem real."

Now, he's set to play his third-round match against compatriot J.J. Wolf. Mmoh is already guaranteed to move to his career-high in the ATP Rankings, but he can move in further with a win against Wolf. Currently, he would move to 82nd place and another victory could send him to No. 74.