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Felix Auger-Aliassime continued his battling progress through the Australian Open draw on Friday with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win against 28th seed Francisco Cerundolo. After coming from behind in each of his first two Melbourne victories, the Canadian never trailed in John Cain Arena, advancing to the fourth round for the third straight year Down Under.

The sixth seed made a blistering start by racing to a 5-0 lead, in stark contrast to his previous matches against Vasek Pospisil and Alex Molcan, in which he lost the opening set — as well as set two in the second round against Molcan.

"I had a great start compared to my two first rounds, so this was better," he said post-match. "It kind of gave me a little cushion. Against tough opponents there's going to be ups and downs. I was playing a bit tight and not going for it in the second set, and he did, so credit to him.

"I'm happy with the way I turned things around and I think the last two sets were probably some of my best ones so far this tournament."

Sealed with a ninth ace on the day.

We'll be seeing @felixtennis on Sunday!@wwos • @espn • @Eurosport • @wowowtennis • #AusOpen • #AO2023 pic.twitter.com/hxJvrQ820a

Stefanos Tsitsipas extended his perfect set record on Friday at the 2023 Australian Open to 9-0 by moving past Tallon Griekspoor into the fourth round. In a 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-3 victory, the Greek saved a set point late in set two before powering through the finish in Rod Laver Arena.

The win sets up a Sunday showdown with Jannik Sinner, a rematch of last year's Melbourne quarter-final that was dominated by the Greek.

"I enjoyed fighting my way through today," Tsitsipas said in his on-court interview. "It wasn't easy at times. I had the crowd with me, as always. It's always a great sensation when I'm out here."

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Against Griekspoor, Tsitsipas saved the only break point he faced, which doubled as a set point for the Dutchman at 5-6 in the second. On return, the World No. 4's depth troubled his opponent throughout the two-hour, eight-minute match. He finished with four breaks on seven chances.

Jannik Sinner completed a comprehensive turnaround Friday when he battled back against Marton Fucsovics to return to the Australian Open fourth round. In his first Grand Slam comeback from two sets down, the Italian dominated the late stages of a 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 victory, doing his part to set up a potential Melbourne rematch with Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The 15th seed ran out a comfortable winner in the end as he found the range on his explosive forehand in the final three sets after an error-strewn start to the match. Fucsovics maintained a good level for much of the three-hour, 33-minute match but could not cope with Sinner's attacking play once the Italian hit top form.

"For sure the first two sets were very tough for me," Sinner said before thanking the Margaret Court Arena crowd. "Obviously I had to change something in my game after the two sets. I was feeling the ball quite well in the beginning, but the final shots I was missing a little bit. Tactically I was not so good."

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After Sinner cruised to a 5-0 lead on the way to winning set three, he flirted with danger one more time when he fell behind 0-2 in the fourth. But a loose service game from his Hungarian opponent handed the initiative back, and Sinner pressed home his advantage by ripping through 12 straight games to race through the finish line.

Daniil Medvedev continues his title quest and Felix Auger-Aliassime looks to carry his momentum from his second-round escape when Day 5 of an unpredictable Australian Open dawns on Friday.

Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, who survived in five sets to oust Lorenzo Sonego on Wednesday, will face another test: 20th seed Denis Shapovalov. Stefanos Tsitsipas hasn’t dropped a set this tournament and the Greek looks to continue his success and quest to reach World No. 1 this fortnight.

ATPTour.com looks at four key matchups on Friday’s action-packed card at Melbourne Park.

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Top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski made a fast start to open men’s doubles action at the 2023 Australian Open. The Dutch-British duo will next clash against the Tsitsipas brothers: Stefanos and his younger brother Petros.

Koolhof and Skupski displayed a dominant performance Thursday, winning 22/25 points off their first serves to take down Alexander Bublik and John-Patrick Smith 6-1, 6-2.

In 2022, Koolhof and Skupski competed in 10 Tour-level finals and collected a season-leading seven titles. Now their eyes are set on their first major crown.

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The Tsitsipas brothers rallied from a set down to oust Ramkumar Ramanathan and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 and now look to upset the World No. 1 team in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Live Rankings.

Andy Murray has clinched his second consecutive five-set win in the early hours of Friday morning at the Australian Open, this time rallying from two-sets-to-love down for a record 11th time in his career.

Finishing at 4:05 a.m., just two hours from daybreak in Melbourne, the former World No. 1 rallied past home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis 4-6, 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-3, 7-5, advancing after five hours and 45 minutes in the longest match of his career. Murray withstood 102 winners, including 37 aces, from the South Australian.

"It was unbelievable I managed to turn that around," said Murray, a five-time Australian Open finalist. "Thanasi was serving unbelievably and hitting his forehand huge. I don't know how I managed to get through it. I did start playing better as the match went on, but yeah, I have a big heart.

"I now am outright the most wins coming from two-sets-to-love down, so I have done it before. I have experience of it. I just rely on that experience and drive. That fight and love for the game and competing and my respect for this event and the competition and that is why I kept going."

With a lively Australian crowd watching, Murray demonstrated his mental and physical strength for the second time this week, having edged Matteo Berrettini in a four-hour, 52-minute five-set thriller in the first round. The Scot battled back from 2-5 in the third set to gain a foothold in the match, before he continued to play aggressively in the fourth and fifth sets to earn the 11th win of his career from two-sets-to-love down, more than any other active player.

Novak Djokovic advanced to the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday at Melbourne Park, but the Serbian did not move through unscathed.

Having entered the tournament with a left hamstring injury suffered in Adelaide, the former World No. 1 was already on alert. But against Enzo Couacaud, Djokovic had his left leg wrapped and had moments in which his movement was visibly compromised.

“I’m glad that I managed to win this match, of course, in four sets. Credit to Enzo for playing well, very well, I think in the second set. A lot of things were happening during this match. It was obvious him and I had some injuries, medical timeouts,” Djokovic said. “My situation with my injury is not ideal. I obviously don't want to go too deep into that. I wish that some things were different with the way I feel with my leg, but it is what it is. I have to take it day by day.”

Djokovic has battled through physical issues before and lifted the trophy at the end of the tournament. But the nine-time Australian Open champion admitted that the injury is at the very least at the forefront of his mind. He explained that he is “not practising basically” on his days off between matches.

“I am worried. I mean, I cannot say that I'm not. I have reason to be worried. But at the same time I have to accept the circumstances and try to adjust myself with my team. My physio and medical team has been doing everything possible so that I can be able to play every match,” Djokovic said. “There's not much more to talk about. There's two choices: leave it or keep going. So I'm going to keep going. I'm going to try to play and compete with, of course, a great player [Grigor] Dimitrov in a couple days' time.”

Novak Djokovic suffered a scare in more ways than one Thursday evening at the Australian Open. However, the nine-time champion persevered to reach the third round at Melbourne Park.

Despite struggling with his left leg, which was wrapped, the Serbian clawed past Frenchman Enzo Couacaud 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-0. Djokovic appeared in difficulty after losing the second-set tie-break, but immediately refocussed to charge through the rest of the match after three hours and four minutes.

The Serbian is chasing a record-tying 22nd Grand Slam trophy this fortnight and will reclaim No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings if he wins the title. The 35-year-old will keep his focus directly in front of him, though, with former World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov looming in the third round.

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There were moments in the match against Couacaud when advancing did not seem a sure thing. As the second set wore on, Djokovic became more hampered by his left hamstring injury. Playing with heavy strapping, the fourth seed winced after stretching for a ball at 4-4, calling for a medical timeout when trailing 4-5.

Incentive was high for Casper Ruud at this year’s Australian Open. If the Norwegian had lifted his maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne, he would have risen to No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time.

However, the second seed will now have to wait for both after losing against American Jenson Brooksby in four sets in the second round on Thursday.

“It's a tough matchup for me and I know it's going to be for many years probably,” Ruud said when reflecting on his defeat. “I will try to learn from it. I think that he played great today. I mean, didn't make many errors at all.

“I didn't feel like I played particularly bad or not at the level that I wanted to play, but he just ended up winning many of the longer rallies and had an answer to all the questions that I asked him.”

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Ben Shelton is making the most of his first international trip. The #NextGenATP American, who had never left the United States before the start of the season, advanced to the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday with a 7-6(3), 7-6(3), 7-5 victory against Nicolas Jarry.

“It feels great. Definitely been a cool experience to be outside the U.S. so far,” Shelton said. “So I'm excited for what's to come and grateful that I got the chance to come here.”

The 20-year-old clearly enjoyed the moment competing in the second round of a major for the first time. The lefty drew on the crowd and soaked it all in.

“I definitely got some similar crowds at the US Open last year, so I kind of got used to that. And then playing college tennis, the crowds are a lot rowdier. They try to get in your head a lot more, and the cheering isn't as polite,” Shelton said, cracking a laugh. “In terms of dealing with crowds, I feel like I've done a pretty good job with that. I think the hardest part was just dealing with the time change and getting my legs back and just how I felt. Obviously, it's my first trip out of the country, so I have never dealt with a time change more than three hours.

“So I think it was the hardest part for me. Going from Adelaide the first week I didn't feel great, and I started feeling really good in the second week in Auckland, and now I think I'm starting to hit my stride.”

Alexei Popyrin rode a scintillating serving performance and a swell of crowd support to clinch the latest upset at the 2023 Australian Open. On Thursday in John Cain Arena, the Australian wild card scored a 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-2 victory against eighth seed Taylor Fritz to continue the trend of eye-catching results in the early rounds Down Under.

"This is the dream for me, and I don't want to wake up at all," he said in an emotional on-court interview. Just before that, he addressed the crowd as they chanted his name: "You guys were just incredible. Oh my god, this is crazy. I really couldn't have done it without you guys. This win means so much to me."

JCA stands to salute @AlexeiPopyrin99! Scenes! Limbs!

The Aussie was brilliant to defeat Taylor Fritz 6-7(4) 7-6(2) 6-4 6-7(6) 6-2@wwos • @espn • @Eurosport • @wowowtennis • #AusOpen • #AO2023 pic.twitter.com/PqifVZCaO7

Popyrin faced just two break points in the match — and none until the fourth set — as he edged Fritz in a match of razor-thin margins. After missing out on a match point in the fourth-set tie-break, the Aussie stared down a break point as he served to open the fifth. But he erased it with an ace, one of 19 in the match, before building a 4-1 lead.

He soared through the finish with his fourth break of the match, ripping an inside-out forehand return on his second match point to seal the deal after just over four hours of play. It was his second straight five-setter, with his opening win against Chin-Hsin Tseng clocking in at four hours, 26 minutes.

One day after aggravating an injury during his second-round loss at the Australian Open, Rafael Nadal updated his fans by revealing the results of an MRI.

"Good afternoon. I have undergone medical tests after losing yesterday," Nadal wrote. "The MRI shows a grade 2 injury in the iliopsoas muscle in my left leg. Now it's time for sports rest and anti-inflammatory physiotherapy. Normal recovery time 6 to 8 weeks."

Buenas tardes. He realizado pruebas médicas tras la derrota en el día de ayer. La resonancia magnética muestra una lesión grado 2 en el Psoas Iliaco de su pierna izquierda. Ahora toca reposo deportivo y fisioterapia anti inflamatoria. Tiempo normal de recuperación 6 a 8 semanas. pic.twitter.com/xwcKSyTzhp

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The iliopsoas muscle is located in the hip. At 3-4 in the second set against McDonald, the Spaniard chased a forehand wide and aggravated an injury that he admitted he had felt for a couple of days.

Following Casper Ruud’s loss on Thursday at the Australian Open, the battle for World No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings is down to three men: Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas and current World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, who is not competing Down Under due to injury. With his defeat to Jenson Brooksby, Ruud cannot climb higher than World No. 2.

The scenarios for the rest of the tournament are simple. If Djokovic or Tsitsipas win the title, they will depart Melbourne as World No. 1. If neither man lifts the trophy, Alcaraz will retain top spot on 30 January.

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Djokovic has plenty of experience triumphing Down Under. The Serbian is a nine-time Australian Open champion and owns an 83-8 record at the tournament. The 35-year-old has not lost at the season’s first major since the fourth round in 2018 against Hyeon Chung.

Djokovic has held World No. 1 for a record 373 weeks, with a record seven year-end No. 1 finishes. He most recently held top spot last June.

For the second day running at the Australian Open, an unseeded American has bounced a top seed from the men's singles draw. After Mackenzie McDonald's shocker against Rafael Nadal on Tuesday, Jenson Brooksby defeated second seed Casper Ruud on Wednesday in Rod Laver Arena.

The Melbourne debutant was in control throughout his 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-2 victory, with Ruud having to save three match points and battle back from 2-5 in the third set just to extend the contest. Brooksby scored the biggest win of his career by frustrating the two-time major finalist, using a steady diet of crosscourt backhands to keep him pinned to his weaker corner for much of the three-hour, 55-minute match.

"First and foremost, Casper is a warrior," Ruud said post-match. "I knew it would be great battle out there. I was pretty confident with my level and just wanted to have fun competing out there.

"I was just really proud of my mental resolve there, after the third-set battle didn't go my way, to just turn it around."

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Andrey Rublev responded brilliantly after dropping his first set of the 2023 Australian Open to defeat Emil Ruusuvuori on Thursday in the second round. The fifth seed powered through the finish line in a 6-2, 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-3 win to match his result from one year ago in Melbourne.

A six-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist, including at the year's first major in 2021, Rublev remains on course to reach that stage this fortnight. He next faces 25th seed Daniel Evans, with ninth seed Holger Rune a potential fourth-round opponent. His draw has been difficult from the start, with a win against Dominic Thiem to open his campaign.

"First round was super hot, now it's super windy," the 25-year-old said in an on-court interview. "It's tough in these conditions against players like Emil who hit the ball really hard, flat... I'm happy that I was able to show a great level, no matter the conditions."

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Following a disappointing third-set tie-break, Rublev quickly made amends by racing to a 3-0 lead in the fourth. Aided by a loose service game from Ruusuvuori, he re-established his dominance on Kia Arena, finishing the match with 50 winners and 16 aces.

There is something about Brandon Holt and Grand Slams that produces magic.

At last year’s US Open, the American won a wild, rain-delay-filled qualifying match to reach the main draw on his first attempt. Holt then stunned countryman Taylor Fritz in the first round. The World No. 303 was one of the stories of the majors in 2022.

Holt’s second Slam has proven just as fruitful. After trailing by a set and a break in the first round of qualifying at the Australian Open against ATP Tour titlist Radu Albot, it appeared he would be on the way home.

This was a different predicament, though. The only one with him in Melbourne is his father, Scott Holt. At Flushing Meadows, he had several family members and friends in the crowd. There were plenty of emotional moments between Holt and his family, especially his mother, WTA legend Tracy Austin.

“Just my dad. Boys’ trip! I was trying to figure out [who was going to come with me] and my dad was like, ‘I’ll come down to Australia!’ I thought about it for a few days and then was like, ‘Yeah, come down to Australia,’” Holt told ATPTour.com. “His flight was cancelled, [so] he showed up right before qualies. He showed up and I was literally down a set and a break in the first qualies match and I was like, ‘This is going to be a quick trip for him, flying here and then back home.’

It was a stressful Tuesday and Wednesday for the Australian Open field, with extreme heat and rain causing delays at Melbourne Park. The only player who did not seem to worry was Frenchman Enzo Couacaud.

While everyone else stressed over when to eat and warm up, when they might play, and thought through every minute detail of their game plans, the No. 191 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings relaxed.

“I had too much food, watched too many episodes of Friends, played cards and talked a lot of crap with my coach. We get along well,” Couacaud told ATPTour.com, cracking a laugh. “Over the past few days, my personality helped me big time. I’m a super chill guy off the court. Whatever comes, I’m happy with it.

“We had to wait, [so I] played cards and had a nap. I’m easygoing, I don’t over-stress things and I think that helped me a lot not to waste energy the last couple days.”

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Thanasi Kokkinakis is known to bring a fun, energetic vibe into any room he enters. And after Wednesday’s victory over Fabio Fognini at the Australian Open, the Australian shared a laugh with reporters during a hilarious moment at his post-match press conference.

“Hi, Nick,” a reporter opened the press conference with, accidentally calling Kokkinakis by the name of his close mate, Nick Kyrgios.

A large smile came across Kokkinakis’ face as he cracked a laugh before pausing and poking back at the reporter, “You’re done, I’m going to can that!”

Oh dear ? @TKokkinakis • @NickKyrgios • #AusOpen • #AO2023 pic.twitter.com/BaxTfvIJCO

The fun didn’t stop there.

Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula have made fast starts at the Australian Open, with the quartet dropping just three sets between them in seven matches.

It follows their success at the United Cup earlier this month, when the ATP and WTA stars joined forces to guide Team United States to the title at the inaugural mixed-teams event.

Throughout the 11-day tournament, the Americans shared jokes about being locked-in on court as they built a strong team dynamic in Sydney. Now in Melbourne, the quartet continues to support each other, with Fritz and Pegula drawing locks on the camera following wins at the major.

“[You] just have to stay locked. It's the whole thing with the United Cup guys. Just staying locked in,” said Tiafoe, who explained the term 'locked' as being 'in the zone'. “I made a joke about it with the guys at the United Cup asking them before the match, ‘Are you locked?’ It's definitely become a thing. It's so funny how true it is because staying between the lines, it's amazing how well you play. It's a funny thing with everybody.”

For ur information i was trying to draw a ? emoji.... I just forgot the very important fact that I suck at drawing

Second-round singles action concludes Thursday at the 2023 Australian Open, where Casper Ruud and Novak Djokovic seek to build on solid opening wins at the first Grand Slam of the year.

Five-time finalist Andy Murray also returns to court, as the Scot tries to build on his epic win against Matteo Berrettini in an enticing clash against home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Andrey Rublev, Holger Rune and Taylor Fritz are among the other names in action on Thursday, when men’s doubles action also commences. Top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski, and 2020 champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury are among teams eyeing a fast start at Melbourne Park.

ATPTour.com runs through some key battles scheduled for Day 4 at the Australian Open.

View Schedule | View Singles Draw | View Doubles Draw