Melbourne [Australia], January 21 : Spanish tennis sensation Carlos Alcaraz made it to the third round of the ongoing Australian Open, securing a hard-fought win over Yannick Hanfmann on Wednesday.
The world number one, Alcaraz, is yet to win the Australian Open, with the six-time Grand Slam champion having secured two quarterfinal finishes in the tournament. His bid for a maiden triumph received massive resistance from the world number 102, Yannick, as he made him fight hard in the first set, pushing it to a tie-breaker. But the next two sets were much easier, showcasing the youngster's class.
Alcaraz eventually came out on top by 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-2, with a 78-minute first set, the longest first set by Alcaraz during Grand Slams, as per ATP's official website. The 34-year-old was aiming to become the first player outside the top 100 of the ATP Rankings to beat Alcaraz during a Grand Slam, but he could not.
If Alcaraz finally gets his hands on the AO title, he would be the youngest to complete a Career Grand Slam in singles competition and the youngest to win seven major titles in the Open era.
On the other hand, it was Coco Gauff from the women's competition who made strides as well, earning her place in the third round with a dominant two-set win over Olga Danilovic 6-2, 6-2, sealing five successive games in the first set to set the tone for a one-sided match, as per Olympics.com.
In the first set, Gauff came through with some explosive strikes and took the set 6-2 easily, despite some late fightback. In the second set as well, Gauff was leading 3-0 at one point and her opponent attempted a comeback, only for the two-time Grand Slam winner and world number three to give a stamp of her class and authority to set up an all-US third-round clash against Hailey Baptiste.