Melbourne (AFP) - Italian seventh seed Matteo Berrettini fought off exciting Spanish youngster Carlos Alcaraz to win a fifth-set tiebreaker and advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open on Friday.
Berrettini, a Wimbledon finalist last year, used all of his experience to down the 18-year-old Alcaraz 6-2, 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (10/5) in 4hr 10min on Rod Laver Arena.
Berrettini will now face either Spanish 19th seed Pablo Carreno Busta or American youngster Sebastian Korda in the round of 16.
The Italian paid tribute to the enormous potential of the 31st-ranked Alcaraz, who has been compared to famous compatriot Rafael Nadal at the same age.
"He's unbelievable.I think at his age I didn't even have an ATP (ranking) point," Berrettini said.
"He's impressive, he can only improve playing matches like this.He showed everybody his potential, luckily today I won, but congratulations to him."
