World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz qualified for the round of 16 of the Australian Open on Friday by knocking out Portuguese Nuno Borges (33rd) in the third round, who took his first set in Melbourne.
The four-time Grand Slam winner won 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 against an opponent he had already dominated in their only previous duel, in 2023 on clay from Barcelona.
Winner in three sets of his first two matches, Alcaraz conceded his first set since the start of the fortnight against Borges, semi-finalist of the ATP 250 in Auckland in early January.
In the round of 16, the 21-year-old Spaniard will face either the Briton Jack Draper (18th) or the Australian Aleksandar Vukic (68th), before a possible shock in the quarter-finals against Novak Djokovic (7th), crowned ten time in Melbourne and in search of a record 25th Grand Slam title.
If he wins the Australian Open, Alcaraz would become the youngest player in history to win all four Grand Slam tournaments.
His best result in Melbourne is a quarter-final, lost in 2024 against Alexander Zverev.
Zverev also qualified for the 8th
-World No. 2 Alexander Zverev also won his place in the round of 16 on Friday by beating Briton Jacob Fearnley (92nd) in three sets in the 3rd round.
Double finalist in Grand Slam (US Open 2020, Roland-Garros 2024), the 27-year-old German won 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 against the winner of the whimsical Australian Nick Kyrgios in the 1st round, present for the second time in his career in the final draw of a major tournament.
Zverev scored a third victory in a row in three rounds in Melbourne on Friday, after two quick successes against the Frenchman Lucas Pouille (103rd) and the Spaniard Pedro Martinez (44th).
Alexander Zverev will face in the round of 16 the winner of the 100% French duel between Ugo Humbert (14th) and Arthur Fils (21st), scheduled for the end of the day in Melbourne.
The gold medalist from the Tokyo Games (2021), double Grand Slam finalist, reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open twice, in 2020 and 2024.
