Canadians Shapovalov, Diallo both bounced from Australian Open in 2nd round
Leylah Fernandez the lone Canadian remaining in singles draw
Canada's Denis Shapovalov has been eliminated from the Australian Open after falling to Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in second-round play in Melbourne.
Musetti, the tournament's No. 16 seed, beat the 25-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont., 7(7)-6, 7(8)-6, 6-2.
Shapovalov struggled with unforced errors, committing 62 across the two-hour 42-minute match.
WATCH | Shapovalov ousted from Aussie Open:
Montreal's Gabriel Diallo was also ousted from the tournament with a 7(7)-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 second-round loss to No. 19-seed Karen Khachanov.
The 23-year-old Diallo fired 15 aces across the three-hour 14-minute match but struggled to break Khachanov, converting on 1 of 5 chances.
WATCH | Diallo suffers 4-set loss in 2nd round:
Leylah Fernandez, of Laval, Que., remains in the mix in the women's singles draw and will face third-seeded American Coco Gauff in the third round.
Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand's Erin Routliffe, the second seeds in Melbourne, face Anna Siskova of Czechia and Maia Lumsden of Great Britain in the women's doubles second round.
U.S. qualifier, 19, eliminates Medvedev
Learner Tien, a 19-year-old qualifier from California, became the youngest American man to reach the Australian Open's third round since Pete Sampras in 1990, upsetting a racket-tossing Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (8), 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) in a match that began Thursday night and ended in the wee hours of Friday.
The four-hour 49-minute contest had a bit of everything, including, hard to believe, a six-minute rain delay that interrupted play shortly before 2:30 a.m. with Tien serving at 5-all, 15-all in the fifth set. When they resumed, Medvedev broke and served for the victory at 6-5, but Tien wouldn't cede a thing, broke back, and forced the concluding first-to-10 tiebreaker that he emerged to win shortly before 3 a.m., about two hours after he failed to convert his initial match point.
The outcome was eyebrow-raising because of the wide gulf in experience and accomplishments between the two players at Margaret Court Arena. Tien is ranked 121st and owned a career Grand Slam record of 0-3 before this week; Medvedev was seeded No. 5, won the 2021 U.S. Open and was the runner-up at Melbourne Park in three of the past four years, including 12 months ago.
"I was definitely hoping it wouldn't go to a fifth-set 'breaker. … It was definitely harder than maybe it could have been, but, whatever," Tien said, then told the crowd: "I really appreciate all you guys staying out here. I know it's late. I have no idea what time it is."
Because of the time difference, the match ended at about 8 a.m. on Thursday morning back home in California, and he took the microphone to speak directly to his family — he said he hoped they were tuned in on TV.
"I don't know if my parents are still watching. ... I love you guys. Thank you for always supporting me from across the world," Tien said. "I know you guys wish you could be here. I wish you could be here, too."
The left-handed Tien played fearlessly and almost flawlessly for stretches, surprisingly getting the better of lengthy exchanges at the baseline: Across the first two sets, he won 32 of the 51 points that lasted nine or more strokes, even coming out on top on one that went 45 shots and another that lasted 32.
This was Medvedev's first tournament of the season — his wife recently gave birth to their second child — and he never really displayed his best tennis. As he often does, the 28-year-old Russian shifted tactics in an attempt to change the course of things, pushing forward to the net frequently early in the third set.
Tien reached two junior Grand Slam singles finals in 2023, at the Australian Open and U.S. Open, and played one semester of college tennis at Southern California before turning pro that year.
He just turned 19 last month, and now is the youngest man from the United States to get this far at the Australian Open since an 18-year-old Sampras reached the fourth round in 1990. Sampras won the U.S. Open later that year for the first of his 14 Grand Slam titles, a total that ranks fourth among men in tennis history.
This match was the latest significant result for a teen in Melbourne this year.
Tien joined João Fonseca of Brazil and Martin Landaluce of Spain as the first trio of teenagers to qualify for the men's bracket at a major since Wimbledon in 2017. And then Fonseca, who beat No. 9 Andrey Rublev, and Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, who defeated No. 6 Casper Ruud, became the first pair of teens to beat top-10 men at the same Grand Slam tournament since Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray did it at Wimbledon in 2006.
Now Tien makes it three.
Swiatek to meet Raducanu in 3rd round
Iga Swiatek rushed through the first set in 26 minutes and completed her 6-0, 6-2 second-round win over Rebecca Sramkova in an hour.
The five-time Grand Slam champion makes a habit of advancing quickly through the early rounds at the majors. She's won almost 12 per cent of her sets in Grand Slams by 6-0, which puts her in exclusive company.
So when No. 49-ranked Sramkova ended a seven-game losing run by holding serve on Thursday, she raised her arm to acknowledge the applause from the Rod Laver Arena crowd. It was one of the few chances she had to celebrate.
"It was good to play in such an efficient way and just finish it quick," Swiatek said. "Also, you know, just feel the court and how it is in RLA."
Second-seeded Swiatek next faces 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu, who recovered from an early break in the second set to hold off Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-5.
Raducanu has struggled with injuries since her breakthrough major in 2021, when she became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam singles title.
She didn't play a warmup tournament ahead of this year's Australian Open because of a muscle strain and needed time during her match against Anisimova to get treatment on her back from a trainer.
After advancing beyond the second round for the first time at Melbourne Park, the No. 61-ranked Raducanu was confident she'd recover in time for her next challenge against Swiatek.
"It'll be a very good match for me, another opportunity to test my game," she said. "Going into it, I have nothing to lose. I'm just going to swing."
Swiatek is moving on from the doping infringement which led to her one-month ban last year. And she's not showing any signs of it being a distraction.
She did everything at pace in the second round, including quick claps of her racket to acknowledge the crowd after her win. Swiatek didn't face a break point against Sramkova and converted five of the six she had. She finished off points with winners off both sides, and also hit some clean volleys on her ventures to the net.
She's feeling slightly less pressure this year, too, after losing the No. 1 ranking to two-time defending Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka.
"Yeah, there was a lot of pressure starting the year as No. 1, but I think overall last year I didn't think about it this much anyway," she said. "Also, I realized last year that I don't have 100% influence on what happens with my ranking sometimes. So now I just focus on tennis."
Sinner consecutive-set streak ends at 29
Defending champion Jannik Sinner's consecutive-sets streak ended in the second round of the Australian Open, but he advanced with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 victory over wild-card entry Tristan Schoolkate.
The top-ranked Sinner entered the night having won 29 sets in a row dating to late last season and he dropped the opener against No. 173 Schoolkate, an Australian.
As it is, Sinner extended his unbeaten streak to 16 matches.
He'll face American Marcos Giron in the third round on Saturday.
Taylor Fritz hasn't wasted any time advancing to the third round, dropping just eight games across two rounds and spending just over three hours on court.
The 2024 U.S. Open runner-up and No. 4 seed beat Cristian Garin 6-2, 6-1, 6-0 to move into a third-round match against 38-year-old Gael Monfils, who last week became the oldest player to win an ATP Tour title.
De Minaur moves on
Also advancing on the men's side were local hope Alex de Minaur, seeded 8th, No. 16 Lorenzo Musetti and No. 21 Ben Shelton, who beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4.
Emma Navarro, a U.S. Open semifinalist last year and seeded in the top eight for the first time at a major, was in trouble after two service breaks early in the third set before she reeled off four straight games to beat Wang Xiyu 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
She hopped from the baseline toward the net, and made a big, swirling swing of her arm to underline another tough, three-set victory.
"It was really tough the whole time ... super tough there at the end," Navarro said. "Found some good tennis there in the last games."
She'll next play Ons Jabeur, a three-time Grand Slam runner-up, who struggled with asthma but held off Camila Osorio 7-5, 6-3.
Sixth-seeded Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion and runner-up in Australia two years ago, registered her 50th win in a Grand Slam main draw singles match when she beat American qualifier Iva Jovic 6-0, 6-3.
No. 9 Daria Kasatkina also advanced 6-2, 6-0 over Wang Yafan and faces No. 24 Yulia Putintseva in the third round.
Kyrgios, Kokkinakis retire from doubles match
Nick Kyrgios's return to the Australian Open is over after he and Thanasi Kokkinakis stopped playing while trailing in the second set of their first-round doubles.
Kyrgios and Kokkinakis, the men's doubles champions at Melbourne Park in 2022, retired while down 7-5, 3-2 against another Australian team, James Duckworth and Aleksandar Vukic.
Both Kyrgios (strained abdominal muscle) and Kokkinakis (right shoulder trouble) came into the match dealing with physical issues after losses in singles.
Kyrgios, the 2022 Wimbledon runner-up to Novak Djokovic, played a total of one singles match across 2023 and 2024, and had wrist and knee operations. His most recent Grand Slam tournament until this week was the 2022 U.S. Open.
And after losing to unseeded Jacob Fearnley 7-6 (3), 6-3, 7-6 (2) on Monday night, Kyrgios said: "I mean, realistically, I can't really see myself probably playing singles again here."
Kokkinakis went out in the second round of singles against No. 15 Jack Draper on Wednesday night by a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 score.
With files from Howard Fendrich, AP
