The first Top 8 men’s seed fell at the Australian Open on Day 4, while 16 players progressed to the third round. While some of the top ATP stars cruised through their matches, there were a couple of great battles to highlight. LWOT recaps all of the action.
Australian Open Day 4 Men’s Recap
Who Looked Good
Carlos Alcaraz continued his fine form on Wednesday, defeating Yoshihito Nishioka 6-0 6-1 6-4. He barely lost points in the first and second sets, crushing return winners and playing aggressively. The match lasted 81 minutes, and the Spaniard fired 14 aces and 38 winners.
The same could be said for World #2 Alexander Zverev, who took out Pedro Martinez 6-4 6-1 6-4. Zverev made 74% of his first serves, and didn’t drop serve once. Alcaraz and Zverev will face Nuno Borges and Jacob Fearnley in the next round, respectively.
Novak Djokovic struggled a bit more in his second-round match, as he dropped a set against a player outside the Top 100 for the second consecutive occasion. Against qualifier Jaime Faria from Portugal, he won 6-1 6-7(4) 6-3 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena. The Serb is no stranger to playing long early matches as of late, but he’ll want to step up his game before a possible blockbuster quarterfinal against Alcaraz. Djokovic has now played more Grand Slam matches than anyone else.
Multiple dark horses succeeded in second-round upsets. Jakub Mensik upset World #6 Casper Ruud in four sets. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina upset Felix Auger Aliassime – who had just won a title in Adelaide – in a five-set battle ending after 1 a.m. Meanwhile, the Aussie Alexandar Vukic upset Sebastian Korda in five sets, 7-5 in the final set. Both players had positive winner-to-unforced error ratios, but it was Korda who played a horrific game at 5-5 in the fifth set to drop out of the tournament early.
In probably the biggest popcorn match of the second round, Tommy Paul rebounded from a first-set loss to defeat Kei Nishikori 6-7 (3) 6-0 6-3 6-1. The last time the two played, almost eight years ago, Paul announced himself to the tour by nearly upsetting the then Top 10 ranked Nishikori at the 2017 Citi Open.
Who Looked Bad
The second-highest-ranked Aussie disappointed on John Cain Arena. Jordan Thompson, who sits close to his career-high ranking of #26 in the world, stumbled out of the tournament with a 6-3 6-2 6-4 loss to Nuno Borges.
It was also disappointing to see Ruud fall convincingly in his second-round match. Hard courts haven’t suited the Norwegian since he made the final of the 2022 US Open; in fact, he hasn’t made it past the fourth round of a hard-court Grand Slam since that 2022 run. He didn’t play poorly, but he let Mensik control the court and overpower Ruud. Mensik hit an impressive 62 winners in the match.
Match of the Day
There were multiple candidates for match of the day, but my pick goes to Jack Draper’s exciting win over home star Thanasi Kokkinakis. Draper won 6-7(3) 6-3 3-6 7-5 6-3, with both players combining for an enormous 134 winners.
The Aussie served impressively early on in the first set, winning 91% of points off his first serve. He used his forehand to his advantage, sealing the first set by crushing an inside-out forehand down the line. Draper got his way into the match by extending points and hitting deep groundstrokes.
The heavy hitting and powerful groundstrokes from Kokkinakis seemed to force a shoulder injury. He continued to control the rallies into the fourth set, breaking serve early on. Unfortunately for the Aussie, he couldn’t recover after serving for the match in the fourth set. Leading 5-3, he lost four consecutive games to give Draper the momentum that he needed.
Some of the points in the fifth set were incredible, with the tension and crowd noise rising. Draper hit 15 winners in the fifth set, and Kokkinakis hit 11.
But the Brit looked stronger on both his forehand and backhand in the fifth set, and he sealed the match with a booming forehand down the line. Draper hit just two unforced errors in the final set, and the match ended after four hours and 35 minutes.
The match result precipitated yet another heartbreaking five-set loss at the Australian Open for Kokkinakis. Fans have to remember his marathon five-set loss to Andy Murray at the 2023 Australian Open and a five-set loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2021 Australian Open.
There is one more day of second-round matches on Thursday before the action heats up for the first weekend of the tournament. LWOT has the previews and predictions for Day 5 matches here. Among those matches highlight Jannik Sinner and feature an exciting clash between Holger Rune and Matteo Berrettini.
Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey – USA TODAY Sports
