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World No. 3 Daniil Medvedev sailed into the fourth round of the Australian Open after a straight-set 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 triumph over Felix Auger-Aliassime in the third round on Saturday.
Throughout the first set in particular, Aliassime was hitting a bigger ball than Medvedev on a regular basis, but the 2021 US Open champion was content to take the tempo, return his easy, flat groundstrokes, and wait for the Canadian to miss. Medvedev committed 25 unforced errors compared to 43 by Felix. The World No. 3 will next play Portugal's Nuno Borges, who claimed a shock four-set 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(6) win over in-form 13th seed Grigor Dimitrov. "It was tough for me, especially after the last match I had. It felt tough when I ran so I tried to give him a tough shot so he couldn't run me so much... I wasn't feeling 100 per cent but I tried to make my best work possible," Medvedev stated as quoted by ATP. Borges had never progressed past the second round of a tour-level event prior to this week. He is now only the second player from his nation to advance past the fourth round of a Grand Slam competition (Joao Sousa, twice). "I still can't believe it, what a match. I never expected to be here in the second week of the Australian Open, who would have thought!" Borges said of the result in his first ATP Head2Head meeting with the Bulgarian. "Maybe in the third set when I got the break I thought, 'Holy crap, I can actually win this'. I was testing my limits, testing him. Anything can happen in a tennis match and today was a true example of that," he added. Elsewhere, Cameron Norrie registered an upset victory against 11th seed Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-3 to claim a confidence-boosting win and reach the fourth round at Melbourne Park for the first time. (ANI)
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