Canada's Fernandez ousted, Djokovic advances at Australian Open

Canada's Leylah Fernandez was eliminated from women's singles play at the Australian Open after dropping a second-round match to Caroline Garcia of France 7-6 (5), 7-5 on Thursday.

Garcia dominated with the serve, delivering 11 aces in a spirited match that lasted one hour and 52 minutes at Rod Laver Stadium.

The tournament's fourth seed also converted two of three breakpoint opportunities, while Fernandez capitalized on just one of nine.

""I felt after the first set it was a little bit of a robbery from my side," said Garcia, who won the WTA Finals in November in Texas. "[Fernandez] was pretty much up the whole time, I couldn't really find my rhythm, but I just tried to play one point at a time, stay in the present and it was very important for me."

WATCH | Garcia knocks Fernandez out of Australian Open in 2nd round:

Garcia knocks Fernandez out of Australian Open in 2nd round

2 years ago

Duration 1:59

Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., was eliminated in the second round of the Australian Open, losing to France's Caroline Garcia 7-6(5), 7-5.

Fernandez, finalist at the 2021 U.S. Open, is the second Canadian ousted from the tournament by Garcia, as she opened her tournament with a straight-set victory over Katherine Sebov (6-3, 6-0).

The 20-year-old Montreal native is still scheduled to team with partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the U.S. in women's doubles play in Melbourne. The pair will meet Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia and China's Zhang Shuai later today.

Also later, Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and partner Giuliana Olmos, seeded third in women's doubles, open their tournament against American Shelby Rogers and Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu.

In men's singles play, Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime, the tournament's sixth seed, is set to face No. 28 Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina in a third-round match, while No. 20 Denis Shapovalov, of Richmond Hill, Ont., meets No. 10 Hubert Hurkaczv of Poland.

Djokovic outlasts injury, heckler

Novak Djokovic propped up his left shoe on a courtside sign so he could stretch out his bothersome hamstring. He grimaced while flexing the muscle after one point, hopped on his right leg to keep weight off the left after another. He took a medical timeout while a trainer re-taped him during the second set — which Djokovic would go on to drop.

As if he needed another distraction, Djokovic was flustered enough by a heckler that he asked chair umpire Fergus Murphy to have the spectator removed from Rod Laver Arena, saying: "The guy's drunk out of his mind. ... He's been provoking. He just wants to get in my head."

As Djokovic summed up: "It was a lot happening tonight."

Seeking a 10th trophy at Melbourne Park, to add to his own record, and a 22nd Grand Slam title overall, to equal Nadal's, Djokovic put everything aside and beat 191st-ranked French qualifier Enzo Couacaud 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-0. It was Djokovic's 23rd consecutive win at the Australian Open, a streak that paused a year ago when he couldn't play in the tournament because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19.

This did not shape up as a contest of much intrigue, given that the fourth-seeded Djokovic has done all that he has done, while Couacaud entered with a career mark of 2-5. And whatever Couacaud's chances were beforehand seemed to dim just four games in, when he turned his right ankle and required a visit from a trainer.

But Couacaud overcame that and played freely, conjuring some terrific shotmaking and even having some fun, celebrating his claim of the second set by pointing to the court as if to indicate, "This is my house!"

Which, of course, it is not. The place belongs to Djokovic, who will play Grigor Dimitrov next, knowing that two highly ranked contenders are no longer possible obstacles.

No. 2 seed Ruud eliminated by American Brooksby

Oh-so-close to completing a straight-set upset of No. 2 seed Casper Ruud at the Australian Open, Jenson Brooksby frittered away three match points, sat down at a changeover and began yelling at himself.

"How?! How?! God!!"

His face was flush, his emotions unhidden, his game unraveling. Soon enough, that set slipped away, as Ruud's confidence seemed to surge and Brooksby's collapse momentarily continued. And then, in a blink, Brooksby was back in charge, taking command immediately in the fourth set along the way to a 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-2 victory over Ruud and a spot in a surprisingly American-filled third round at Melbourne Park.

"I was getting a little more frustrated out there that I didn't close it out, and my mentality was changing a little bit," said the 39th-ranked Brooksby, who sipped from little jars of pickle juice in the fourth set at Rod Laver Arena. "Those are the situations you have to handle sometimes in matches, and you're going to face. I think the biggest question is: How do you respond? I just told myself to reset."

So leave it to a pair of 20-something Californians to rid the men's bracket of its two highest seeded players: Brooksby, 22, delivered his unexpected triumph at the same stage and in the same stadium that Mackenzie McDonald, 27, defeated No. 1 seed and defending champion Rafael Nadal a day earlier. That makes this the first Grand Slam tournament since the 2002 Australian Open that the Nos. 1-2 seeds lost before the end of the second round.

Nadal owns a men's-record 22 Grand Slam titles. Ruud was the runner-up at the French Open to Nadal last June and at the U.S. Open to Carlos Alcaraz last September.

Their exits are a big deal and make nine-time champion Djokovic even more of a title favourite in his return to Australia after being deported a year ago because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Also a big deal: The progress of U.S. men through the year's first major championship. None has won a Grand Slam title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open.

By reaching the third round, Brooksby joined countrymen Michael Mmoh, Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul and J.J. Wolf, who also won Thursday, along with McDonald, No. 16 Frances Tiafoe and No. 29 Sebastian Korda, who all won Wednesday. The highest-seeded American man, though, could not make it that far: No. 8 Taylor Fritz bowed out with a 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2 loss to 113th-ranked Australian wild-card entry Alexei Popyrin.

Still, the eight men from the United States remaining are the most into the third round in Australia since the same number did it in 1996.

Mmoh, who lost in qualifying but got into the main draw when another player withdrew, made it this far at a major tournament for the first time by defeating No. 12 Alexander Zverev 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

Shelton, the NCAA champion from the University of Florida participating in just his second Slam, beat qualifier Nicolas Jarry of Chile 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3), 7-5; Paul came back to edge No. 30 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 6-2, 2-6, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4; and Wolf breezed past No. 23 Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

Brooksby now plays Paul; Mmoh takes on Wolf.

"Frances is probably my best friend. I grew up with Tommy," Mmoh said. "I've known these guys for so long. I've competed with them."

Murray edges Kokkinakis after 4 a.m.

The times on the clock shifted from p.m. to a.m., the day from Thursday to Friday, and Andy Murray never wavered, never relented, no matter that he faced a two-set hole at the Australian Open, no matter that he is 35 and possesses an artificial hip, no matter that this was the longest and latest-finishing match of his long, illustrious career.

His explanation was simple: "I have a big heart."

The three-time major champion and 26-year-old Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis stared down exhaustion and each other for 5 hours, 45 minutes of compelling theater in a second-round contest at Melbourne Park until Murray emerged with a 4-6, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-3, 7-5 victory that ended a little after 4 a.m.

"The match was obviously very up and down. There was frustration in there. There was tension. There was excitement and all of that stuff," Murray told reporters gathered in a stadium hallway after his 11th career comeback to win after dropping two sets, the most among active players.

"I mean, look, it is obviously amazing to win the match," he continued with a chuckle, "but I also want to go to bed now. It's great. But I want to sleep."

How tight was this? Murray won 196 points, Kokkinakis 192. And how high was the quality of play? They combined for 171 winners to only 107 unforced errors in the chill of a temperature that dipped below 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius), delighting the hundreds of enthusiastic and loud spectators who remained in the blue seats.

They waved flags and cheered raucously throughout, delighted by the extreme effort and excellence displayed by both men. No matter who folks were cheering for, they were sure to leave with a great story to tell.

"Amazingly, people stayed until the end," said Murray, who won the U.S. Open in 2012, Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016 and is a five-time runner-up at the Australian Open. "I really appreciate people doing that and creating an atmosphere for us."

He was, understandably, not pleased by the circumstances and the late hour.

"I don't know who it's beneficial for," Murray said. "A match like that, we come here after the match and that's what the discussion is: Rather than it being `epic Murray-Kokkinakis match,' it ends in a bit of a farce."

Somehow, it was not the latest finish in Australian Open history. A 2008 match at the tournament between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis concluded at 4:34 a.m., the record for any Slam.

No. 2 Ons Jabeur loses to Vondrousova

Second-seeded Ons Jabeur became the latest top player to exit the Australian Open in the second round, beaten by 86th-ranked Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 5-7, 6-1.

Jabeur had complained of a knee problem after her opening victory at Melbourne Park and seemed out of sorts for much of the loss against Vondrousova, which ended a little past 1 a.m. on Friday.

Jabeur, who is from Tunisia, was the runner-up at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2022 and came to Australia considered a contender for what would be her first Grand Slam title.

She reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne in 2020 but missed the tournament a year ago with an injured back.

The left-handed Vondrousova reached the final of the French Open as a teenager in 2019 but has never made it past the fourth round in 17 other appearances at Grand Slam tournaments.

No. 9 seed Kudermetova also upset

There was also a big win for an American woman Thursday: 21-year-old qualifier Katie Volynets defeated No. 9-seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

Elsewhere, No. 5 Aryna Sabalenka improved her 2023 record to 6-0 by topping Shelby Rogers 6-3, 6-1 after trailing 3-1 early, and No. 19 Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated Taylor Townsend 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.

"I literally have the chills, because the fans here are just incredible," said Volynets, who reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. "I've never played in a stadium this packed and with that many people keeping the energy up for me. It was awesome."