Stefanos Tsitsipas has overcome a second-set blip to beat Sebastian Baez in four sets and seal his ticket to the Australian Open third round.
Greek sensation Tsitsipas had plenty of support on hand at Margaret Court Arena and traded tiebreaks against the young Argentinian before pulling away to prevail 7-6 (7-1) 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-4 on Thursday
It took Tsitsipas three hours and 22 minutes to get past Baez, with the French Open finalist hitting 63 unforced errors to the 21-year-old's 48, while he won just four of 18 break points.
"It wasn't easy. I'm glad I overcame that obstacle today. Lots of fighting, a little bit of swearing but I'm glad to be in the third round," fourth seed Tsitsipas said.
"It was a pretty hot day today playing here but I tried to play with heart and it paid out again.
"(After the tiebreakers) I tried to just go for my shots a little bit more. At certain moments I got a little bit lucky with finding the right depth and coming in.
"On the return, I tried to stay as close to the baseline as possible which cut out time for him and pushed him back a little bit more."
Tsitsipas will face either 26th seed and 2017 Open semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov or Frenchman Benoit Paire in the third round.
Meanwhile, Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev has continued his powerhouse start to 2022, smashing Ricardas Berankis 6-4 6-2 6-0 to book his spot in the third round.
The Australian Open is Rublev's first tournament of the year after he was forced to withdraw from the ATP Cup having tested positive to COVID-19.
But the 24-year-old showed no signs of ring rust in the one-hour, 47-minute demolition of Berankis, a Lithuanian who has been ranked inside the top 50 but is now back to No.93.
Rublev has dropped just 13 games in his opening two matches at the Open.
His third-round opponent will be 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic.
The No.27 seed from Croatia advanced with a 6-2 6-3 3-6 7-6 (8-6) win over Slovakian qualifier Norbert Gombos.
Ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime fought off Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in four tiebreak sets, prevailing 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4).
The Canadian will next face No.24 seed Daniel Evans, who had a walkover against Arthur Rinderknech.
World No.2 Daniil Medvedev withstood the Nick Kyrgios show, and a boisterous Rod Laver Arena crowd, to keep his bid for back-to-back slam titles on track.
The US Open champion prevailed 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 4-6 6-2 to book a third-round clash with Dutch world No.57 Botic van de Zandschulp.
Five-time Open finalist Andy Murray bowed out with a 6-4 6-4 6-4 loss to Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel.
