Taylor Fritz, the highest-seeded American man on the Australian Open, wanted solely 82 minutes to defeat Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin on Thursday and advance to the third spherical in Melbourne.
Behind a robust first serve, Fritz, the 2024 US Open runner-up and No. 4 seed, cruised previous Garin 6-2, 6-1, 6-0.
Fritz has dropped solely eight video games throughout two rounds and spent simply over three hours on court docket. Excluding walkovers, that is tied for the third-fewest video games misplaced by any man en path to the third spherical of the Australian Open since 1988, when the occasion switched to hardcourt.
Additionally advancing on the boys’s aspect was native hope and No. 8 Alex De Minaur, who dispatched American qualifier Tristan Boyer 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 on Rod Laver Area.
Earlier Thursday, Gael Monfils, 38, turned the fourth-oldest man to succeed in the third spherical since 1988.
Monfils, on the heels of changing into the oldest participant to win an ATP Tour title Saturday on the Auckland Basic, beat Germany’s Daniel Altmaier 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (3) to arrange a gathering with Fritz for a spot within the spherical of 16.
Their solely earlier assembly got here on the 2019 Australian Open (Fritz gained their second-round match in 4 units).
No. 16 Lorenzo Musetti reached the third spherical at Melbourne Park for the primary time in his profession by overcoming Denis Shapovalov 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6), 6-2. Up subsequent for Musetti is American twenty first seed Ben Shelton, who took out former Spanish world No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4.
ESPN Analysis, The Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.