Australian Open: Tsitsipas wins, sets up Fritz clash in last 16

Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 7 seed, moved into the last 16 of the Australian Open by defeating Frenchman Luca Van Assche 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 at Melbourne Park on Friday.

Tsitsipas, the runner-up in 2023 and ranked No 7 in the world, will play American Taylor Fritz, the No 12 seed, who beat Hungarian Fabian Marozsan in another third round encounter on Friday.

The Greek is through to the third round in Melbourne for the sixth year in a row and will be aiming to reach the semi-finals for the fifth time in that span.

This was his first straight sets win for the tournament, having needed four sets to win his first two rounds in Melbourne this week.

The Greek won against Belgian lucky loser Zizou Bergs (5-7, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3) and edged out Australian Jordan Thompson (4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2, 7-6 (4)) in the previous rounds.

Earlier in the tournament, Van Assche, ranked No 79, won against Australian wildcard James Duckworth (6-7 (2), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3) and Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the No 25 seed (6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-0).

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round matches (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 58,910,000):

• 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)
• Alexander Zverev vs. Alex Michelsen
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Cameron Norrie vs. Casper Ruud
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Nuno Borges
• Arthur Cazaux vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Juncheng Shang vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Ugo Humbert vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Tommy Paul vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
• Sebastian Korda vs. Andrey Rublev
• Alex De Minaur vs. Flavio Cobolli
• Novak Djokovic vs. Tomas Martin Etcheverry
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Ben Shelton
• Taylor Fritz vs. Fabian Marozsan