Some rain had been forecast for Day 3 of the Australian Open but it, fortunately, happened very late in the day and all the matches were played according to the schedule with some late court changes. It was very windy, though, so some of the players on the outside courts had a bit tough time about it.
Australian Open Day 3 Men’s Recap
Who is feeling good about himself?
After reaching the quarterfinals here two years ago, Tennys Sandgren has made another Australian Open upset (in 2018 he took out Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem). Eighth seed Matteo Berrettini was the victim this time around. Berrettini came back from two sets to love and had a 4-3 40-0 lead on Sandgren’s serve in the decider. Yet somehow, the American dug out of this hole and broke soon to beat his opponent 7-6 6-4 4-6 2-6 7-5.
Tommy Paul also survived a comeback attempt from a seeded player, Grigor Dimitrov. The American led two sets to love but was getting weaker and weaker physically, ultimately going down 3-5 in the fifth set. But it was the Bulgarian who started struggling, losing his own game from 30-0 up and allowing Paul to get back in there. In the deciding tie-break, it was suddenly Dimitrov who couldn’t move well, and the American was able to take it 10 points to 3.
Roger Federer took 92 minutes this down to dispatch Filip Krajinovic 6-1 6-4 6-1. The Swiss’ draw is opening up with him now sure of not facing a seed until the quarterfinals.
Who would like to forget this performance?
Daniel Evans, seeded at a Grand Slam for the very first time, didn’t live up to the expectations. After coming back from two sets to love down in the first round against Mackenzie McDonald, the Brit found himself in that same spot against Yoshihito Nishioka. But it wasn’t to be this time around, as Evans never broke the Japanese and lost the match 4-6 3-6 4-6.
18-year-old Jannik Sinner was stunned by Marton Fucsovics. The Hungarian found some great form out of nowhere and defeated Denis Shapovalov in the first round. Fucsovics was able to repeat that performance on Wednesday, taking out the very promising youngster 6-4 6-4 6-3. Although part of that was caused by the Hungarian’s good play, Sinner had quite a dreadful day, hitting 16 winners to 47 unforced errors.
Hubert Hurkacz simply wasn’t physically up to the challenge against John Millman. The Pole failed to recover well after playing a five-setter against Dennis Novak on Tuesday. Millman has the ability to make the opponent play one more ball and that’s exactly what he did. Hurkacz lost 4-6 5-7 3-6 and won just 30% of points behind his second serve.
Match of the day
Although it had weaker moments (like every match of the Frenchman), Benoit Paire losing in five sets to Marin Cilic was wildly entertaining. Paire finally overcame his tie-break curse (was 0-8 this year prior to this match) but lost a much more important one in the fifth set. There were little opportunities to break for either player in the fifth set and it was all on the tie-breaker to decide the winner. Cilic was a much better player in that one, winning all of his service points and taking the match 6-2 6-7 3-6 6-1 7-6. The Frenchman hit 30 aces but it wasn’t enough to stop Cilic. It was Paire’s 10th match this season and all of them have gone the distance.
Main Photo from Getty.
