{"id":78381,"date":"2025-01-15T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T18:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=78381"},"modified":"2025-01-15T13:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T18:20:08","slug":"australian-open-day-4-mens-recap-alcaraz-djokovic-progress-aussies-clash-five-setters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/01\/15\/australian-open-day-4-mens-recap-alcaraz-djokovic-progress-aussies-clash-five-setters\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open Day 4 Men’s Recap: Alcaraz, Djokovic Progress; Aussies Clash in More Five-Setters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first Top 8 men\u2019s seed fell at the Australian Open<\/a> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Australian Open Day 4 Men’s Recap<\/h2>\n

Who Looked Good<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Carlos Alcaraz<\/strong> continued his fine form on Wednesday, defeating Yoshihito Nishioka<\/strong> 6-0 6-1 6-4. He barely lost points in the first and second sets, crushing return winners and playing aggressively<\/a>. The match lasted 81 minutes, and the Spaniard fired 14 aces and 38 winners.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same could be said for World #2 Alexander Zverev<\/strong>, who took out Pedro Martinez<\/strong> 6-4 6-1 6-4. Zverev made 74% of his first serves, and didn\u2019t drop serve once. Alcaraz and Zverev will face Nuno Borges<\/strong> and Jacob Fearnley<\/strong> in the next round, respectively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/strong> 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\u2019ll want to step up his game before a possible blockbuster quarterfinal against Alcaraz. Djokovic has now played more Grand Slam matches than anyone else<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Multiple dark horses succeeded in second-round upsets. Jakub Mensik<\/strong> upset World #6 Casper Ruud<\/strong> in four sets<\/a>. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina<\/strong> upset Felix Auger Aliassime<\/strong> \u2013 who had just won a title in Adelaide \u2013 in a five-set battle ending after 1 a.m. Meanwhile, the Aussie\u00a0Alexandar Vukic<\/strong> upset Sebastian Korda<\/strong> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n