Fritz, De Minaur both reach third round after second round victories

Top eight seeds Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur both took a fast pass into the Australian Open third round Thursday.

Completing their matches within 60 seconds of each other midway through Day 5, fourth seed Fritz dropped just three games in a 6-2, 6-1, 6-0 victory over Chilean qualifier Cristian Garin in one hour and 22 minutes; eighth seed and home favourite De Minaur defeated American qualifier Tristan Boyer 6-2, 6-4 6-3 in just under two hours.

At No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings, US Open and Nitto ATP Finals runner-up Fritz is playing at his highest seeding in a Grand Slam tournament and has not been broken through his first two matches. Against Garin he clipped 24 winners to nine and won 80 per cent of first-serve points and 60 per cent of second-serve points, according to Infosys Stats.

“It always feels great to come out and play a match like that,” said Californian Fritz, who announced on court that he would donate his AUD$ 132,000 first-round prize money to Los Angeles fire relief efforts. “I played well in the first round too, so I’m high in confidence going into the third round. This is awesome.”

The American will next play Frenchman and recently minted Auckland champion Gael Monfils. The 38-year-old, who extended his winning streak to seven matches, defeated German Daniel Altmaier 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(3), backing up his five-set win over countryman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the opening round.

Fritz, who dropped just five games in his first-round win over countryman Jenson Brooksby, is seeded to meet World No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-finals.

De Minaur dropped his opening serve in his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Boyer, but then won eight straight games to break open the match.

“He’s a dangerous player who takes the racquet out of your hand,” De Minaur said. “My team did some scouting but ultimately it was about me bringing the best version of myself.”

De Minaur next faces another first-time meeting against 31st seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina. He is seeded to meet World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the quarter-finals.