Another year means another Australian Open third round – at the very least – for Carlos Alcaraz.
The top seed was put to the test by Yannick Hanfmann at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday and passed with flying colours, triumphing 7-6(4) 6-3 6-2 in 2 hours and 44 minutes to clinch his second win at AO 2026.
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“It was tough… the ball was coming as a bomb you know - forehand, backhand, serves so I had to be ready for those,” Alcaraz said. The 22-year-old advances to the round of 32 for a third straight year. “I knew he was going to play great,” he added.
Hanfmann’s fastest first serve landed at 208 km/h, just 1 km/h slower than Alcaraz, and the German’s average first serve speed for the match was 188 km/h, again just 1 km/h slower than the Spaniard’s.
“Really, really happy that I get through a really difficult first set and then I started to feel a little bit better on the court with my shots,” Alcaraz said.
“Tactically I played much, much better so [I’m] just happy to have played at a really good level at the end of the match and get through to another round.”
Hanfmann applied early pressure against the six-time major champion, earning a break point opportunity in Alcaraz’s nine-minute opening service game. Though the Spaniard fended off that break point, he served up a double fault in the fourth game to hand Hanfmann a 3-1 lead.
While Alcaraz immediately recaptured the break, the German’s deep, heavy groundstrokes kept the 34-year-old on even ground with his younger foe. Resilient through a nearly ten-minute service game, Hanfmann saved a pair of break points - one with an ace - to hold for 5-5.
In the ensuing tiebreak, a stellar backhand winner from Alcaraz earned him a minibreak, which Hanfmann promptly snatched back with a stunning drop shot.
The duo exchanged minibreaks again before a Hanfmann forehand found the net, putting the set on Alcaraz’s racquet, and the 22-year-old released a roar as a forehand return from his German rival sailed wide.
In an entertaining second set, both players sought out chinks in each other’s armour. Alcaraz secured a break in the fourth game as a volley from the world No.102 found the net, and closed the set out with ease.
Increasingly relaxed, the popular man from Murcia couldn’t help but smile when Hanfmann won a thrilling point with a textbook overhead smash after executing a perfect drop shot and lob combination that had Alcaraz scrambling.
On the wrong end of a two-sets-to-love deficit, Hanfmann, vying to defeat a world No.1 for the first time in four tries, received a medical time-out for treatment to his torso.
With the finish line in sight, the world No.1 broke in the third game of the third set and again for a 5-2 lead. Serving for the match, Alcaraz landed his third double fault of the day, handing Hanfmann a potential reprieve in the form of three break points. After saving that trio and a subsequent fourth break point, the top seed had two match points, both of which Hanfmann saved with sizzling forehand winners, earning him deafening cheers of appreciation.
On match point number three, the German couldn’t repeat his heroics and sent a backhand outside the lines as Alcaraz fans sprang to their feet.
On Friday, the world No.1 faces a first-time opponent in the form of either qualifier Michael Zheng or 32nd seed Corentin Moutet.