Kukushkin puts Kazakhstan on Australian map

World number 92 Mikhail Kukushkin wrote his name in Kazakh history with the country's best ever male performance at a grand slam Saturday, thanks to a bizarre victory over injury-hit Gael Monfils.

Kukushkin capitalised on a back problem which drastically restricted the athletic Monfils to take a two-set lead, but then was unable to press his advantage.

The resulting exchange was watched in puzzlement as restricted Monfils could only parry Kukushkin's shots at half-pace, but the bemused Kazakh was continually unable to find winners.

The match, on raucous Margaret Court Arena, meandered for 3hr 40min before Kukushin finally gained the crucial break to win 6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 1-6, 6-4.

"Do Kukushkin and Monfils realise this is a grand slam tournament and winning is important?" tweeted British journalist Barry Flatman, while the BBC's Jonathan Overend noted that Kukushkin looked "frazzled by fear".

Monfils admitted he was "lucky" to force the fifth set, and was playing purely on adrenaline brought on by the crowd.

"This one was tough because I had a sore back. But it was really cool. For sure the crowd helped me," he said.

"That's why I chose to keep going, because I could easily have given up. But it was a nice atmosphere. I just tried to have luck in the match and fight, so it was cool."

Kukushkin finished with a whopping total of 72 unforced errors and just nine break points converted out of 26 chances.

But whatever the manner of the victory, 24-year-old Kukushkin becomes the first man from central Asian Kazakhstan to reach the last 16 of a grand slam.