By Nick Mulvenney
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Daniil Medvedev raced into the second week of the Australian Open with a 6-3 6-4 6-3 victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime on Saturday, showing few signs of fatigue after his marathon late-night outing in the second round.
The Russian third seed, who came from two sets down to beat Emil Ruusuvuori well into the early hours of Friday morning, looked at his clinical best as he eased into the fourth round for fifth time.
“It was tough, especially after the last match I had but happy to play some good level,” said Medvedev, who took his career record against Auger-Aliassime to 7-0.
“I tried to always give him tough shots so I didn’t have to run too much and in the third set I managed to find some shots, so happy with the level of my game.”
The pair went to five sets in the quarter-finals two years ago at Melbourne Park before Medvedev prevailed after saving a match point but Auger-Aliassime came nowhere near the level he displayed that night.
The error-prone Canadian 27th seed showed some fight to prevent Medvedev from winning the match with a sixth break but the Russian served out comfortably enough to seal the victory in just over two hours.
Medvedev, back-to-back losing finalist in Melbourne in 2021 and 2022, moves on to a meeting with Portuguese world number 69 Nuno Borges in the last 16.
The 27-year-old said he was still feeling the effects of his second-round match, after which he did not get to bed until 7am.
“It wasn’t easy, I’m not feeling fresh, I’m not feeling 100%,” he said.
“At least I have this super ability that I can sleep where I want, whenever I want. When I was younger, I would go out at night after matches and sometimes train without sleep. Maybe that helped me play today.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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