Cazaux’s dream run continues with win over Griekspoor and trip to last 16 at Australian Open

He’s done it – again! French wildcard Arthur Cazaux backed up his massive upset of Holger Rune in round two with another colossal victory against Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, the No 28 seed, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1, on Saturday in Melbourne.

The 122-ranked Frenchman moves into the last 16 at a major for the first time and sets a clash with Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.

Cazaux put forth his most dominant display of week one, smacking 35 winners against 14 unforced errors and converting five of 14 points against the Dutchman. He never faced a break point and won 39 of 46 first serve points to finish the lopsided battle in one hour and 46 minutes.

It’s been a wild ride for the Montpellier native, who is making his fourth main draw appearance at the Slams, and his first at the Australian Open. He defeated Serbia’s Laslo Djere in the first round for his first ever main draw victory at a major.

From there things have only improved, as he stunned Dane Holger Rune, the No 8 seed (7-6 (4), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3), in the second round to set up his match with Griekspoor.

By winning on Saturday Cazaux becomes the 40th wild card to reach the round of 16 at a Grand Slam in Open Era history, and the 29th Frenchman to reach the round of 16 at the Australian Open.

Griekspoor, ranked No 31, eventually overcame Russian Roman Safiullin (2-6, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-5) and edged out Frenchman Arthur Fils (3-6, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4) in the previous rounds.

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Tennis Majors

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 58.910.000, most recent results first):

• Alexander Zverev vs. Alex Michelsen
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Cameron Norrie vs. Casper Ruud
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Nuno Borges
• Carlos Alcaraz (2) beat Juncheng Shang (WC): 6-1, 6-1, 1-0 ret.
• Hubert Hurkacz beat Ugo Humbert (21): 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Miomir Kecmanovic beat Tommy Paul (14): 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-0
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Sebastian Korda (29): 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-4
• Alex De Minaur (10) beat Flavio Cobolli (Q): 6-3, 6-3, 6-1
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry (30): 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Adrian Mannarino (20) beat Ben Shelton (16): 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (7) beat Luca Van Assche: 6-3, 6-0, 6-4
• Taylor Fritz (12) beat Fabian Marozsan: 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2
• Jannik Sinner (4) beat Sebastian Baez (26): 6-0, 6-1, 6-3
• Karen Khachanov (15) beat Tomas Machac: 6-4, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (5)