British No2 Dan Evans had the simplest of passages into round three of the Australian Open when opponent Arthur Rinderknech pulled out with a wrist injury prior to their match on Thursday.
Evans had previously impressed against former world No7 David Goffin with a straight-sets victory in the opening round and will bid over the weekend to reach the fourth round in Melbourne for only the second time in his career.
His quest to do that will come against ninth seed Felix Auger Aliassime, who impressed in the preceding ATP Cup by beating the likes of Evans’ countryman Cameron Norrie and Alexander Zverev, after he beat Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Heather Watson missed out on joining Evans in the third round, although pushed No29 seed Tamara Zidansek in a second tight match between the two in the space of barely a week. But the Slovenian came out on top 7-6 6-4.
World No2 Aryna Sabalenka survived an almighty scare to beat China’s Xinyu Wang 1-6 6-4 6-2 but another of the Australian Open favourites, 2020 finalist Garbine Muguruza, was surprisingly knocked out 6-3 6-2 by Alize Cornet.
Afterwards, Muguruza, whose build-up to the tournament was undone by a two-week separation from her team when they all tested positive for Covid, said: “I feel like my shots weren’t accurate and precise. I feel also my aggressive game wasn’t that aggressive today. I feel like she was dominating some of the long points.”
