Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, and Dominic Thiem all safely through at Australian Open

Australian Open
Daniil Medvedev at Australian Open

The seeds had a pretty good day at the Australian Open, with wins for Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, and Dominic Thiem among others.

Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev, was particularly impressive given his tough draw.

He was given a tough workout by last year’s quarter-finalist Frances Tiafoe before coming through 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-2.

Seventh seed Alexander Zverev won his first match of the year, beating Marco Cecchinato 6-4 7-6 (4) 6-3.

The German followed John McEnroe in promising money for wildfire relief, in his case 10,000 dollars per match won and, if he claims the title, the entire 4.12 million dollars in prize money (approximately £2.17million).

Fifth seed Dominic Thiem was a straight-sets winner, beating Adrian Mannarino 6-3 7-5 6-2, while ninth seed Roberto Bautista Agut and former champion Stan Wawrinka successfully reached round two.

There were two comebacks from two sets to love down, 12th seed Fabio Fognini exuberantly beating giant American Reilly Opelka and 31st seed Hubert Hurkacz defeating Dennis Novak.

Twentieth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime followed his fellow Canadian prodigy Denis Shapovalov out in the first round, losing in four sets to Ernests Gulbis, who posted his first main draw win in Melbourne for six years.

Andrey Rublev made it 13 victories in a row after titles in Doha and Adelaide despite losing the second set 6-0 to Australian wild card Chris O’Connell, and fellow Russian Karen Khachanov also won in four sets.

There was a notable first grand slam victory, meanwhile, for 18-year-old Italian Jannik Sinner, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals in November and is the hottest teenage talent in the men’s game.

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