Felix Auger-Aliassime cruises into 3rd round of Australian Open

Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced to the third round of the Australian Open with a four-set victory on Thursday in Melbourne.

The Montreal native topped Hugo Grenier of France 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Auger-Aliassime, the No. 27 seed at the Australian Open, will next face the winner of a match between Finland's Emil Ruusuvuori and Russian Daniil Medvedev.

Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz dropped a set for the first time in the tournament before recovering to beat Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-6 (3) in Rod Laver Arena.

With a strong breeze to contend with, Alcaraz was tested by Lorenzo Sonego before coming through in four sets.

"I think both of us played a high level," Alcaraz said. "The match was a little tricky with the wind and sun, so it was tough to play our best. But even if I lost a set, we played a good match."

Two of the early men's matches went the distance before being decided in 10-point tiebreakers, with Olympic champion Alexander Zverev holding off Lukas Klein 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) in 4 1/2 hours and No. 11 Casper Ruud edging Max Purcell 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7).

"He played incredible. He was hitting every single ball as hard as he could from both sides," Zverev said of Klein, a No. 163-ranked qualifier from Slovakia. "I didn't really know what to do most of the times. To be honest, he probably deserved to win the match more than me today."

Cameron Norrie, the No. 19 seed, also went five sets, coming from two sets down to beat Italian qualifier Giulio Zepperi 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 while Alex Michelsen defeated No. 32 Jiri Lehecka 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

In women's action, Anna Blinkova needed 10 match points before finally finishing off an upset over 2023 finalist Elena Rybakina in