Australian Open: Van Assche moves into second round

Frenchman Luca Van Assche rallied from two sets to one down to earn his first Australian Open main draw victory on Monday in Melbourne, defeating Australian wildcard James Duckworth 6-7 (2), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to advance to a second-round clash with Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the No 25 seed, next.

79th-ranked Van Assche, one of six teenage men to start the main draw at this year’s Australian Open, played a cleaner match than Duckworth, cracking 43 winners against 27 unforced errors, while Duckworth hit 59 winners and 70 unforced errors.

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The Frenchman converted 5 of 13 points to get over the hump against the 31-year-old wild card in three hours and 32 minutes.

The victory marked Van Assche’s first five-set win and a major, and just his second main draw victory at a Slam in four overall appearances.

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

• Richard Gasquet vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Alexander Zverev vs. Dominik Koepfer
• Daniel Evans vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Sebastian Ofner vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis
• Mackenzie McDonald vs. Juncheng Shang
• Alexander Bublik vs. Sumit Nagal
• Tommy Paul vs. Gregoire Barrere
• Holger Rune vs. Yoshihito Nishioka
• SoonWoo Kwon vs. Lukas Klein
• Marcos Giron vs. Jack Draper
• Max Purcell vs. Mate Valkusz
• Grigor Dimitrov vs. Marton Fucsovics
• Albert Ramos-Vinolas vs. Casper Ruud
• Dusan Lajovic vs. Giulio Zeppieri
• Cameron Norrie vs. Juan Pablo Varillas
• Bernabe Zapata Miralles vs. Jiri Lehecka
• James McCabe vs. Alex Michelsen
• Roman Safiullin vs. Tallon Griekspoor
• Arthur Fils vs. Jiri Vesely
• Laslo Djere vs. Arthur Cazaux
• Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Dominic Thiem
• Alex De Minaur vs. Milos Raonic
• Rinky Hijikata vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
• Miomir Kecmanovic vs. Yosuke Watanuki
• Alexandre Muller vs. Hugo Grenier
• Maximilian Marterer vs. Nuno Borges
• Omar Jasika vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Zhizhen Zhang vs. Federico Coria
• Andy Murray vs. Tomas Martin Etcheverry
• Ugo Humbert vs. David Goffin
• Christopher Eubanks vs. Taro Daniel
• Yannick Hanfmann vs. Gael Monfils
• Alejandro Tabilo vs. Aleksandar Kovacevic: monday
• Aleksandar Vukic vs. Jordan Thompson: monday
• Daniel Altmaier vs. Karen Khachanov: monday
• Jakub Mensik (Q) beat Denis Shapovalov: 6-3, 7-5, 7-5
• Stefanos Tsitsipas (7) beat Zizou Bergs (LL): 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3
• Adrian Mannarino (20) beat Stan Wawrinka: 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0
• Alexei Popyrin beat Marc Polmans (WC): 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (23) beat Constant Lestienne: 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (5)
• Ben Shelton (16) beat Roberto Bautista Agut: 6-2, 7-6 (2), 7-5
• Daniil Medvedev (3) beat Terence Atmane (Q): 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 1-0 ret.
• Emil Ruusuvuori beat Patrick Kypson (WC): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4)
• Sebastian Korda (29) beat Vit Kopriva (Q): 6-1, 6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2
• Flavio Cobolli (Q) beat Nicolas Jarry (18): 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5
• Lorenzo Musetti beat Benjamin Bonzi: 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-2
• Hugo Gaston (LL) beat Roberto Carballes Baena: 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
• Frances Tiafoe (17) beat Borna Coric: 6-3, 7-6 (7), 2-6, 6-3
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Dino Prizmic (Q): 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4
• Quentin Halys beat Lloyd Harris (Q): 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (2)
• Daniel Elahi Galan beat Jason Kubler (WC): 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (8)
• Sebastian Baez (26) beat J.J. Wolf: 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 3-0 ret.
• Taylor Fritz (12) beat Facundo Diaz Acosta: 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Jesper De Jong (Q) beat Pedro Cachin: 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4
• Christopher O’Connell beat Cristian Garin: 3-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5
• Tomas Machac beat Shintaro Mochizuki (LL): 7-5, 6-1, 7-5
• Andrey Rublev (5) beat Thiago Seyboth Wild: 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (6)
• Fabian Marozsan beat Marin Čilić: 6-1, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5
• Francisco Cerundolo (22) beat Dane Sweeny (Q): 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2
• Pavel Kotov beat Arthur Rinderknech: 7-5, 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-3
• Jannik Sinner (4) beat Botic van de Zandschulp: 6-4, 7-5, 6-3
• Matteo Arnaldi beat Adam Walton (WC): 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-4
• Jaume Munar beat Alexander Shevchenko: 6-3, 6-3, 6-1