Eighth Seed Taylor Fritz Out Of Melbourne To Tearful Wildcard Alex Popyrin

MELBOURNE: Eighth seed Taylor Fritz became the latest top name to tumble out of the Australian Open on Thursday, ousted in round two by wildcard local hope Alex Popyrin who was in tears at the end.

The American Fritz, who had a breakthrough year in 2022 with titles at Indian Wells, Tokyo and Eastbourne, fell in five gruelling sets at a partisan John Cain Arena. Australia's Popyrin prevailed 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/2), 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 6-2.

"This is a dream and I don't want to wake up at all," said Popyrin, who equalled his best Grand Slam result and was reduced to tears by the crowd chanting his name.

"Pre-season I put my head down and worked as hard as I possibly could... I'm going to keep working. I love this feeling and I want more of this feeling."

Fritz, who helped spearhead the US to the United Cup title leading into the Australian Open, had never before lost at Melbourne Park to a player ranked as low as number 113 Popyrin.

The 22nd seed Alexde Minaur beat Adrian Mannarino 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 while Benjamin Bonzi shocked 14th seed Pablo Carreño Busta 4-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-1, 7-6 to reach the third round.

World number four Caroline Garcia admitted she was relieved to see off tricky left-hander Leylah Fernandez in straight sets Thursday and take her place in the third round of the Australian Open.

Garcia, of France, beat the 20-year-old former US Open finalist 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 in 1hr 52min on Rod Laver Arena to set up a meeting with Laura Siegemund of Germany.

"I'm pleased because she was pretty much up all the time and winning her service games very easily," said Garcia of the world number 40 from Canada.

At the end of a high-quality first set which saw one service break each, Fernandez upped a gear at the start of the tiebreak, stretching out to a 4-0 lead.

But a double fault at 4-1 gave Garcia a sniff and she capitalised, fighting back to 6-5 and sealing the set with an ace.

Neither could make inroads early in the second set with Garcia unable to maintain pressure on Fernandez, who lost the 2021 Flushing Meadows final to Emma Raducanu.

Then at 5-5, Fernandez finally cracked as Garcia finally broke and then served out for the match, celebrating with a trademark leap of joy.

Garcia roared back into the top five last year after a tough couple of years where injuries caused her form to desert her.

Since June 2022 Garcia has won 38 Tour-level matches including titles on all three surfaces -- clay, grass and hard courts -- to climb back from 74th in the world at the start of last season.

In-form Belinda Bencic's bid to become only the second Swiss woman to win the Australian Open stayed on track but only after an erratic 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 win over American Claire Liu in the second round.

The only Swiss woman to lift the Australian Open winner's Daphne Akhurst Cup previously is Martina Hingis, who did so in 1997, '98 and '99.

Bencic's best result in 10 previous Australian Open appearances was a run to the fourth round, in 2016. Bencic moves on to play Italy's Camila Giorgi on Saturday for a place in the last 16.

Varvara Gracheva beat Lucrezia Stefanini 6-3, 6-1, Zhang Shuai beat Petra Martic 6-3, 6-3, Nuria Parrizas-Diaz beat Anastasia Potapova 6-3, 6-2 in other second round matches.

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