The 19-year-old Halys was playing in his first grand slam of his career. “I love it every time I come here”.
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“My response is that there’s always going to be, especially these days when there is a lot of speculation – this is now the main story in tennis, in sports world – there’s going to be a lot of allegations”, Djokovic said.
Federer, Berdych, Kei Nishikori and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were also victorious in straight sets, but Gilles Simon – the 14th seed – was made to work much harder before eventually beating Evgeny Donskoy 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-1) 4-6 7-5.
Twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was sent tumbling out of the Australian Open in the second round by Daria Gavrilova, stunned 6-4 6-4 by the 21-year-old local. He finally finished the job in the tie-break at 6-1, 6-2, 7-6.
“I thought I served great”.
Intriguing matches are all over the Melbourne grounds on Thursday, including (2) Andy “I’ll Bail If My Wife Goes Into Labor” Murray vs. Aussie big-server Sam Groth, (8) David Ferrer vs. Lleyton Hewitt in Hewitt’s possible swan song, (23) Gael “Force” Monfils vs. Nicolas Mahut in an all-French, (16) Bernard “I’ve Got a Good Draw” Tomic vs. Italian Simone Bolelli, (4) Stan Wawrinka vs. Radek “The Worm” Stepanek, (13) Milos Raonic vs. Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo, and (25) Jack Sock vs. upset expert Lukas Rosol. “Like a year ago the third round was the end for me, so I hope to go further this time”.
A host of other leading men’s seeds joined Federer in marching into the round of 32 on Wednesday.
The Czech has reached the semis at Melbourne Park in each of the past two years.
The home crowd were able to cheer a straight-sets win for Nick Kyrgios against Pablo Cuevas on Hisense Arena, while Noah Rubin – who hit the headlines with his shock first-round win over a frustrated Benoit Paire – exited meekly at the hands of another Frenchman, Pierre-Hugues Herbert. The No. 7 seed had little trouble with American Austin Krajicek and won 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
But Goffin recovered quickly, going on to win 6-4 0-6 6-4 6-2. Thiem was helped by his Spanish opponent’s sloppy play.
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No. 12 seed Marin Cilic from Croatia downed Spaniard Albert Ramos 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7-4).
