Australian Open: Local hero Popyrin moves into third round, beating Fritz !

Australian wildcard Alexei Popyrin defeated American Taylor Fritz, the No 8 seed, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2 to reach the third round of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Thursday night.

 “Just to have the crowd chanting your name, playing a match like that, winning against a player like Taylor, for me it was really, really big, really emotional, especially after the year I had last year,” said Popyrin after the match. “I’ll never forget it.”

Popyrin, ranked No 113, will play American Ben Shelton next.

In the previous round, the Australian won against Chun-Hsin Tseng (4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-1). Fritz, ranked No 9, edged out Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili (6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5).

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Melbourne (Grand Slam), other second-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):

• Andy Murray vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis
• Enzo Couacaud vs. Novak Djokovic
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Alex De Minaur
• Pablo Carreno Busta vs. Benjamin Bonzi: thursday
• Brandon Holt vs. Roberto Bautista Agut: thursday
• Maxime Cressy vs. Holger Rune: thursday
• Grigor Dimitrov (27) beat Laslo Djere: 6-3, 6-2, 6-0
• Michael Mmoh vs. Alexander Zverev: thursday
• Ugo Humbert beat Denis Kudla (LL): 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4
• J.J. Wolf beat Diego Schwartzman (23): 6-1, 6-4, 6-4
• Ben Shelton beat Nicolas Jarry (Q): 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3), 7-5
• Jenson Brooksby beat Casper Ruud (2): 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-2
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Emil Ruusuvuori: 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3
• Tommy Paul beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (30): 6-2, 2-6, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4
• Daniel Evans (25) beat Jeremy Chardy: 6-4, 6-4, 6-1
• Cameron Norrie (11) beat Constant Lestienne: 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3
• Jiri Lehecka beat Christopher Eubanks (WC): 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
• Tallon Griekspoor beat Botic Van De Zandschulp (32): 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
• Sebastian Korda (29) beat Yosuke Watanuki (Q): 6-2, 7-5, 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (3) beat Rinky Hijikata (WC): 6-3, 6-0, 6-2
• Hubert Hurkacz (10) beat Lorenzo Sonego: 3-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Denis Shapovalov (20) beat Taro Daniel: 6-3, 7-6 (3), 7-5
• Francisco Cerundolo (28) beat Corentin Moutet: 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 7-5
• Yoshihito Nishioka (31) beat Dalibor Svrcina (Q): 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
• Daniil Medvedev (7) beat John Millman (WC): 7-5, 6-2, 6-2
• Marton Fucsovics beat Lloyd Harris: 6-2, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
• Karen Khachanov (18) beat Jason Kubler (WC): 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2
• Frances Tiafoe (16) beat Juncheng Shang (Q): 6-4, 6-4, 6-1
• Mackenzie McDonald beat Rafael Nadal (1): 6-4, 6-4, 7-5
• Felix Auger-Aliassime (6) beat Alex Molcan: 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
• Jannik Sinner (15) beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry: 6-3, 6-2, 6-2