Two players at either end of the age spectrum were the talk of Melbourne Park as another 50 first round matches were wrapped up on Day 3.
Those around Court 3 to witness Gael Monfils’ five-set victory over fellow Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard will remember the 38-year-old’s performance for a very long time, only three days after he won his 13th ATP title in Auckland.
That title run in New Zealand made Monfils the oldest man to win a tour level trophy since Ken Rosewall in 1977, and again he defied the ageing process to edge past the monster server 7-6(7) 6-3 6-7(6) 6-7(5) 6-4.
“I'm crazy happy,” said Monfils, who didn’t face a single break point during nearly four hours in the sun. “I have another chance to come out and play in a packed stadium.”
Not many fans on site would have imagined a more remarkable result than Monfils’ on Tuesday until 18-year-old Joao Fonseca stepped inside Margaret Court Arena to face ninth seed Andrey Rublev.
And it surely won’t be long before the teenager will be known as ‘Wow’ Fonseca after hammering 51 winners to shock the world No.9 7-6(1) 6-3 7-6(5) on his Grand Slam debut.
The world No.112 is now on a 14-match winning streak that includes the Next Gen ATP Finals title in Saudi Arabia, his second Challenger trophy in Canberra, and three wins in qualifying without dropping a set.
The women’s top seeds largely went through without too much fuss, although eighth seed Emma Navarro might disagree after needing over three hours to scramble past fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 7-5 at Rod Laver Arena.
Fourth seed Jasmine Paolini had things much easier against Chinese qualifier Wei Sijia winning 6-0 6-4, while sixth seed Elena Rybakina needed just 53 minutes to outclass 16-year-old Aussie prospect Emerson Jones.
British former US Open champion Emma Raducanu won her first match of the year despite chalking up 15 double faults to edge past No.26 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in two tiebreak sets.
A couple of big names on the men’s side survived scares as both Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune were taken the distance.
Three-time Australian Open finalist Medvedev beat world No.418 Kasidit Samrej from Thailand 6-2 in the fifth, while No.13 seed Rune survived against Chinese No.1 Zhang Zhizhen 4-6 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-4.
It was much easier for world No.4 Taylor Fritz though, who smoked another American, Jenson Brooksby, losing just five games in under two hours on court.
Later, Alex de Minaur flew the flag for the locals after nine Australians won matches on Monday.
‘Demon’ raised his game during the tail-end of a tough second set to see off dangerous Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-1 7-5 6-4 – despite Botic’s outrageous tweeter winner from early in the third set already a strong candidate for shot of the tournament.
Other notable men’s results saw Matteo Berrettini take down former top tenner Cameron Norrie in four sets, and No.16 seed Lorenzo Musetti fight past another Italian, Matteo Arnaldi, 7-6(4) 4-6 7-6(5) 6-3.
Those two results set up two tasty second round match-ups as Berrettini will now face Rune, while Musetti plays Denis Shapovalov.