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MELBOURNE, Australia – World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, defending champion in Melbourne, won Thursday in four sets in the second round of the Australian Open against Australian Tristan Schoolkate (173rd), the first player to take a set from him in 14 matches.
The 23-year-old Italian won 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 against this opponent who benefited from an invitation from the organizers of the first Grand Slam of the season.
Sinner will play his place in the round of 16 against the American Marcos Giron (46th).
The latter beat the Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry (38th) in the second round, who was the last player before Schoolkate to have managed to take a set from the Italian, at the beginning of October at the Masters 1000 in Shanghai.
On Thursday, Sinner joined his rivals Alexander Zverev (2nd), Carlos Alcaraz (3rd) and ten-time winner Novak Djokovic (7th), qualified on Wednesday, in the third round of the Australian Open, as well as the American Taylor Fritz (4th) , who got his ticket earlier today.
Finalist of the last US Open, the American won 6-2, 6-1, 6-0 in the 2nd round against Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin (150th). For his entry into the running, Fritz had already crushed his compatriot Jenson Brooksby (unclassified) leaving him with only five games.
He will meet French veteran Gaël Monfils (41st) in the next round. At over 38 years old, the French veteran continued the momentum of his recent victory at the Auckland tournament to achieve a seventh victory in a row on Thursday in the 2nd round, against the German Daniel Altmaier (101st): 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).
Apart from Djokovic (7th), ten-time winner in Melbourne, no active player has reached the 3rd round of the Australian Open as often as the Parisian, who achieved this performance for the 12th time on Thursday.
A sensation at the start of the tournament after his clear victory against Andrey Rublev (9th), the young Brazilian Joao Fonseca (112th at 18 years old) lost after five sets to Lorenzo Sonego (55th).
The 29-year-old Italian saved a break point at 3-3, before taking his opponent’s serve to win.
“It was a great fight for my first five-set match. But I didn’t play my best tennis and I was nervous especially in the last set,” regretted Fonseca, conceding that “Lorenzo’s experience” in these marathon encounters made the difference.
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