Day 5 of the Australian Open was a good day for the higher seeds in the men’s and women’s draws, with big names advancing to the third round.
Men’s No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner stumbled early against Australian Tristan Schoolkate by dropping the opening set 4-6. That was first time Sinner had lost a set since Oct. 2, 2024 against Tomás Etcheverry at the Shanghai Masters
But the upset hopes of the crowd favorite were soon dashed as the Italian won the next three sets 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 to continue on in the tournament with his 16th straight victory.
American Taylor Fritz dispatched Cristian Garín of Chile in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, 6-0 to move to the third round for the fifth time in six years. He has lost just eight games in six sets in the tournament.
After the match, the No. 4 seeded Fritz announced that he will donate his first-round prize money of about $82,000 to relief funds to help those affected by the Los Angeles wildfires.
“I just want everyone to stay safe, it’s just insane what happened,” said Fritz. Obviously ‘SoCal’ has been my home forever. I still spend a lot of time in LA, but I lived in LA for quite a while. I have friends impacted; family not so much. I had some family have to evacuate. The house that my brothers grew up in burnt down.”
Fritz will face 38-year-old Gaël Monfils of France in the next round.
Fellow American and U.S. Open semifinalist Francis Tiafoe didn’t fare as well. The No. 17 seed Tiafoe fell in five sets (7-6, 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 1-6) to Hungary’s Fábián Marozsán.
Brazil’s Joao Fonseca, a qualifier who made waves knocking out No. 9 seed Andrey Rublev in the opening round, saw his tournament come to an end after a hard-fought five-set battle (7-6, 3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 3-6) with Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.
The final match of the day saw American Learner Tien, playing in his first major outside of the U.S. Open, upset No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev in a five-set classic, 6-3, 7-6, 6-7, 1-6, 7-6, that ended at 2:54 a.m. local time.
Medvedev had reached three of the past four Australian Open finals, but could not fend off a ferocious Tien.
On the women’s side, No. 2 seed Iga Świątek needed only an hour to knock out Rebecca Šramková (6-0, 6-2) to make the third round for the sixth year in a row. She is now the only men’s or women’s player to advance to at least the third round in every Grand Slam tournament this decade.
Świątek is a five-time Grand Slam champion with four French Open wins and the 2022 U.S. Open title. She will face England’s Emma Raducanu next.
Fourth-seeded Jasmine Paolini, who had not moved out of the opening round until last year, took care of Mexico’s Renata Zarazúa in straight sets (6-2, 6-3) in her first ever match at Rod Laver Arena. She will face Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in the last 32.
The match between No. 10 seed Danielle Collins and Australia’s Destanee Aiava was highlighted more by Collins’ battle with the Kia Arena crowd than her three-set (7-6, 4-6, 6-2) victory.
With the locals backing Aiava, Collins leaned into playing the villain during her win and blew kisses to fans and repeatedly said, “How about that?!” as the crowd jeered.
After the match, Collins continued in her role as the heel as she said she enjoyed feeling the heat from the Australian crowd.
“I was super happy to do that and one of the greatest things about being a professional athlete are that the people that don’t like you and that hate you, they actually pay your bills,” Collins said. “Every person that has bought a ticket and has come out here to heckle me can do what they do. It’s all going towards the Danielle Collins fund. So like, yeah, bring it on I love it.”
