Day 3 at the Australian Open on the men’s side was quite eventful, with several great matches and many long five-setters. In the end, though, the top seeds all advance, albeit some with considerable difficulty.
In a day that was marked by Gael Monfils’ last ever match at this tournament, he was very close to being 2-0 up against Dane Sweeny, but ended up losing 4 in his last ever tournament appearance.
Australian Open Men’s Day 3 Recap
Who looked good
Ben Shelton had a very tough first-round draw against the highest-ranked unseeded player, Ugo Humbert, but he continued his trend of playing his best tennis in Slams and got a close, straight-set win over the Frenchman. After reaching the semifinals last year, Shelton looks poised for another strong run Down Under.
Jannik Sinner unsurprisingly made easy work of Hugo Gaston, losing three games in the first two sets before Gaston retired. The two-time defending champion looks to be in fine form once again and aiming for a threepeat.
Stefanos Tsitsipas has shown signs of improvement so far in 2026, and after losing the first set, he played some very nice tennis on his way to beating Shintaro Mochizuki. It remains to be seen whether a former finalist can actually have a strong run here, but the signs were good today.
Who looked bad
Match of the Day
There were seven five-setters today, all of them quite exciting, and it’s hard to exclude a match like Karen Khachanov vs Alex Michelson (won by Khachanov), but the pick of the day goes to the battle of generations and styles between Jakub Mensik and Pablo Carreño Busta. The veteran Spaniard was on the cusp of getting a fantastic win against the Auckland champion, but Mensik played a fantastic fourth-set tiebreak and then managed to prevail in the fifth set in what is so far the longest match of the tournament.
Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke – USA TODAY Sports
