And the show continues for Gaël Monfils. The 38-year-old French veteran (41e world) qualified, Thursday January 16, in Melbourne for the 3e round of the Australian Open by dismissing the German Daniel Altmaier (101e) in three sets: 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (3).
Winner of the ATP 250 tournament in Auckland on Saturday, the Parisian achieves a seventh success in a row and joins his compatriots Ugo Humbert, Arthur Fils and Benjamin Bonzi, who qualified on Wednesday.
By winning his match against Altmaier, Monfils reached for the twelfth time in his career the 3e round of the Australian Open. Among active players, only the ten-time winner in Melbourne Novak Djokovic has done better (17 times).
“La Monf”, who became in Auckland the oldest tournament winner on the main circuit since 1977, will challenge, in an attempt to snatch a place in the round of 16, the American Taylor Fritz (4e) who crushed the Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin (150e), conceding only three games (6-2, 6-1, 6-0).
Eliminated from 2e tour of the Australian Open in 2024, Monfils reached the quarter-finals twice in Melbourne, in 2016 and 2022.
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Swiatek expeditious, Navarro laborious
Among the women, the world number 2, Iga Swiatek, left only two games to the Slovak Rebecca Sramkova (49e) to access 3e round. On a Rod Laver Arena swept by a chilly wind, the Polish player did not have time to catch a cold, dispatching her opponent 6-0, 6-2, in about an hour.
“I felt very solid, I played my game very efficiently”welcomed Swiatek, “glad to have kept [sa] concentration ». In the 3rd round, the five-time Grand Slam winner will face the British Emma Raducanu, winner of the US Open in 2021, since falling to 61e place.
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The journey of the American Emma Navarro (8e) in Melbourne is more tortuous: the semi-finalist of the last US Open once again needed three sets (6-3, 3-6, 6-4) to win against the Chinese Wang Xiyu, 94e worldwide. For her entry into the running against her compatriot Peyton Stearns, Navarro had already narrowly emerged after a 3 hour 20 minute fight.
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In the next round, the American will face the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (39e), three-time Grand Slam finalist.
