Home favourite Alex de Minaur equalled his best result at the Australian Open Saturday when he cruised past Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi 7-6(0), 6-2, 6-1 to reach the fourth round for a second consecutive year.

After winning a tight first set, in which he twice squandered break advantages, the Australian pulled away, committing just 12 unforced errors in the second and third sets combined to seal victory after two hours and 10 minutes.

With his fourth victory of the season, De Minaur now leads Bonzi 3-0 in their ATP Head2Head series. He will look to keep his run going when he takes on nine-time champion Novak Djokovic or 27th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round.

The 23-year-old’s best result at a major came at the US Open in 2020, when he advanced to the quarter-finals.

De Minaur’s countryman Alexei Popyrin meets #NextGenATP American Ben Shelton later on Saturday. If Popyrin wins, it will be the first time since 2015 that two Australian men have reached the fourth round in Melbourne. Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios achieved the feat eight years ago.

In other action, Tommy Paul wasted little time in reaching the fourth round in Melbourne for the first time. The American overcame countryman Jenson Brooksby 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 to set up a clash against five-time finalist Andy Murray or Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut.

Paul, who is up to No. 33 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, struck 34 winners and saved all four break points he faced to seal victory after two hours and nine minutes. With his win, the 25-year-old has equalled his best Grand Slam result, having advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon last year.

Brooksby upset second seed Casper Ruud en route to the third round, but was unable to find the same level against Paul, who now leads the 22-year-old 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series.

Andrey Rublev unleashed a torrent of hard-hitting winners against Briton Daniel Evans Saturday to muscle his way into the fourth round of the Australian Open. The fifth seed clocked triple the number of winners (60-20) than his opponent en route to a dominant 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 win.

Evans, a gritty opponent who can get under the skin of even the most unflappable players, had proven a difficult challenge for the combustible Rublev in six prior meetings, which the players had evenly split.

But on Thursday Rublev mixed devastating first-strike tennis with one of his stronger mental performances as he denied Evans a path into the match. Hitting a Serve+1 forehand 90% of the time, Rublev dominated points of 0-4 shots, winning 66 to Evans’ 44.

Not even an act of kindness from Evans could soften up the 25-year-old, who recently passed $15m in career earnings. Early in the match when Evans heard Rublev call for a banana, he tossed one to his opponent.

“I didn’t ask him for it, but I asked a ball boy. He had two so he threw one to me and I caught it. It helped with some energy,” Rublev said with a smile.

Sharing bananas on court is a definite first 🍌😂@AndreyRublev97 & Dan Evans • #AusOpen • #AO2023 pic.twitter.com/kgQAJoplXS

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 21, 2023

Having already moved to No. 5 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings to tie his career-high mark, Rublev will next face the winner of ninth seed Holger Rune and Frenchman Ugo Humbert as he shrugs off what had been a slow start to the year.

After two opening-round defeats to Roberto Bautista Agut and Thanasi Kokkinakis at the back-to-back Adelaide 250 tournaments in the first two weeks of the season, Rublev said that he was in need of a boost.

“At the beginning of the season I lost a bit of confidence with those losses, but now I am playing good tennis,” he said. “After the first set I was feeling really confident and I knew I could play better, faster and that he was not comfortable with that, so I tried to play even more aggressive.”

Rublev, who has never reached the semi-finals of a major, is now one win away from his seventh major quarter-final, and second in three years Down Under.

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Michael Mmoh was sitting in his hotel room on Tuesday watching the Dallas Cowboys play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL playoffs. The American had lost in the final round of Australian Open qualifying and his hopes of taking a spot in the main draw appeared slim, so he booked his flight home.

“I was fully locked in on that game. Then all of a sudden I got a call from the ATP guy. Right when I saw the notification, I answered it right away. Like, literally,” Mmoh said Thursday. “I have never answered a phone call so fast in my life. First ring, and I was on it.”

The 25-year-old was told to be on site and get ready, since there was a possibility of a withdrawal that would see him enter the draw. Once David Goffin withdrew, the American was next on Court 13 to play Frenchman Laurent Lokoli. In the match ahead of them, Linda Fruhvirtova was leading Jaimee Fourlis 6-0, 2-0.

“I literally just grabbed my bag, grabbed a bunch of match clothes. Luckily everything was kind of in there already. Went straight to the site,” Mmoh said. “Also luckily, that match slowed down a little bit…

“Then another thing that went in my favour is I went basically straight to the match court, and then there was that heat delay. That kind of helped me.”

Even so, heat was not the only factor. It also rained, which wreaked more havoc on the match. Through the whirlwind of events, Lokoli took a 6-4, 6-2, 6-6 (6/6) lead, when a rain delay sent the players off court with the Frenchman two points from victory. When they returned, Mmoh missed a short forehand to give Lokoli match point, putting the World No. 175 on the brink of his first tour-level win. The Frenchman double faulted to give Mmoh life.

“At that point I just knew, if he wasn’t going to take the match, there had to be somebody to take the match. I could see that he was very nervous at that point,” Mmoh said. “I felt like I was playing well, but just things weren’t really going my way. But I knew if I won that set, the momentum would have shifted. He would have been thinking about that moment, and I felt like I was the better player.”

The American took full advantage of the opportunity. He won the tie-break, claimed the fourth set and took a 3-1 lead in the decider, when weather again suspended play, this time until Wednesday.

When the players continued the match, there was far less drama. Mmoh cruised through the rest of the fifth set, triumphing 6-2 in the decider to reach the second round at Melbourne Park for the third time. It was not that long ago he was sitting in his hotel room preparing to fly home.

“At that point, [I thought I had] zero [chance]. At this point I was even talking to my fiancee, and she was like, ‘Why don’t you fly out tonight?’ I was, like, ‘I would, but I don’t even think there [are] flights,’” Mmoh recalled. “I’m here now. Like, what if I was at the airport and somehow I got a last-minute call? Then I would be screwed. So I’ve got to stay just this one afternoon basically.”

The dream run did not stop there. Mmoh on Thursday stunned two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev in four sets to reach the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time.

“I don’t know if I’m going to finally wake up or something. It just doesn’t seem real. Like, the past 48 hours have been a complete whirlwind from going from being ready to go back home, booking a flight, packing my bags. I was supposed to leave yesterday,” Mmoh said. “Now I’m here, and I just had the best win of my career. It just doesn’t seem real.”

Mmoh in action during the second round in Melbourne, where he upset Zverev. Credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Mmoh is up to No. 82 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, which will put him at a new career high on 30 January regardless of how he performs the rest of the fortnight. This did not come out of the blue, though.

The American finished 2022 on a high, winning two ATP Challenger Tour titles and reaching another final from September. He credits that to remaining healthy.

“To be honest, I haven’t been this healthy in my whole career. I think in 2018 I got out the Top 100, and I was main draw Australian Open, and I was main draw [in] some of the ATP events following. I got injured, and I was out for six months,” Mmoh said. “It’s always been a stop-start in my career, but the last 12 months or 12 to 14 months I’ve been 100 per cent healthy.

“I’ve been playing every event that I want to play. I think that’s a blessing because not every week is going to go your way.”

Mmoh is enjoying a dream run on and off the court. One month ago, he proposed to fiancee Klara Mrcela. Now he will play J.J. Wolf for a place in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

“Insane. Insane. You know, because the thing is I proposed, and then two days later I left to come to these tournaments. So it would have been maybe a little sad if I would have came back and lost in qualies,” Mmoh said. “At the end of the day it doesn’t matter, but to come back after probably the biggest win of my career… We definitely have got to celebrate that moment together when we’re back, along with the engagement.”

Daniil Medvedev was aiming for his second major title and first Down Under this fortnight. Instead, he will leave the Australian Open with disappointment for a third straight year.

After almost tasting victory a year ago in Melbourne, before Rafael Nadal’s epic comeback, Medvedev won’t see the second week of this year’s tournament after Sebastian Korda upset the seventh seed 7-6(7), 6-3, 7-6(4) on Friday.

Despite the disappointment of an early round straight-sets defeat, Medvedev gave a clear cut answer explaining the loss.

“I think it was a match where he was just better than me,” Medvedev said in his post-match press conference. “Right now I’m struggling a little bit to win these kinds of matches against opponents that can play at a good level. That’s what I have to find back.”

Nearly 11 months ago, Medvedev rose to World No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings shortly after finishing runner-up at the 2022 Australian Open. This year’s result in Melbourne means a far different outcome for Medvedev’s ranking. Friday’s third-round defeat means the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals champion will crash out of the Top 10 for the first time since July 2019.

Despite not getting past the fourth round in his past three Slam appearances (Australian Open, US Open, Roland Garros) and collecting just two Tour-level titles in 2022 (Los Cabos, Vienna), Medvedev is hungry to find answers to help lift him towards contending for the game’s most prestigious titles again. The 26-year-old also suffered a trio of tight three-set defeats at the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals. But he’s not giving up hope.

“My shots are there, I’m doing the right thing,” Medvedev said. “Today was a little bit different where he was on top of me all the time and I was trying to come back every set, trying to fight, trying to be there.

“That’s why tennis is so tough because in the Top 30 everyone can beat everybody. Of course, the Top 10 are more consistent, and that’s why I’m dropping down a little bit now but everyone can beat everybody.”

Although Medvedev had won his previous meeting with Korda at the 2021 Rolex Paris Masters, the American brought a different level today, firing his all-court game from every corner of the court. The 22-year-old produced consistent depth and often worked his way forward to test Medvedev’s deep court positioning.

Medvedev isn’t the only one to notice great potential in the young American Korda. In the first week of the season, Novak Djokovic fended off a championship point to defeat the Florida native and win the Adelaide International 1. The 92-time Tour-level titlist said Korda has, ‘beautiful-looking tennis’. The 2021 US Open champion Medvedev also praised Korda following their contest on Rod Laver Arena, revealing that his style of play reminds him of the man who beat Korda in Adelaide a couple weeks ago.

“The most difficult thing is that he hits the ball very strong. Probably one of the strongest hitters,” Medvedev said. “Also takes [the ball] very early. There are some other guys playing like this, but they miss more than him. And he didn’t miss that much.

“His game is kind of different from everybody because he’s very aggressive and takes the ball very early. A little bit maybe like Novak.”

Medevdev, who drops to No. 12 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, was aiming to become the fourth man in the Open Era to reach three consecutive Australian Open finals. The 15-time Tour-level titlist will instead have a few weeks off from competition before his next event, the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam, which runs from 13-19 February.