2022 AUSTRALIAN OPEN DAY 4 MEN’S NOTES

2022 AUSTRALIAN OPEN DAY 4 MEN’S NOTES Thursday 20 January 2nd Round Bottom Half Featured matches No. 2 Daniil Medvedev (RUS) v Nick Kyrgios (AUS) Page 2 No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) v Sebastian Baez (ARG) Page 5 No. 5 Andrey Rublev (RUS) v Ricardas Berankis (LTU) Page 7 No. 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) v Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP) Page 10 No. 11 Jannik Sinner (ITA) v Steve Johnson (USA) Page 12 No. 13 Diego Schwartzman (ARG) v (WC) Christopher O’Connell (AUS) Page 14 No. 15 Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) v Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) Page 17 No. 20 Taylor Fritz (USA) v Frances Tiafoe (USA) Page 20 No. 24 Daniel Evans (GBR) v Arthur Rinderknech (FRA) Page 23 No. 26 Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) v Benoit Paire (FRA) Page 25 No. 32 Alex de Minaur (AUS) v Kamil Majchrzak (POL) Page 27 (WC) Andy Murray (GBR) v (Q) Taro Daniel (JPN) Page 30

On court today… • Daniil Medvedev and Nick Kyrgios contest the first match of the night session on Rod Laver Arena this evening, with Kyrgios bidding to maintain his unbeaten record against Medvedev. The Australian has won the pair’s 2 previous Tour-level meetings – both of which came in 2019 – and also won their only meeting as juniors in 2013. But Medvedev is now a Grand Slam champion and is the highest-ranked player in the draw here this year – and he will surely be confident of defeating Kyrgios for the first time to reach the 3rd round in Melbourne for the 4th consecutive year. • The 3rd match of the day on Margaret Court Arena sees No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas take on Sebastian Baez, with Baez bidding to extend his Grand Slam debut after a superb 5-set victory over Albert RamosVinolas in the 1st round on Tuesday. Both players are former junior world No. 1s – with Tsitsipas reaching top spot in May 2016 and Baez getting there just under 2 years later in March 2018. Neither were able to win a junior Grand Slam title but Baez, who won 6 titles at Challenger-level in 2021, is beginning to show that he, like Tsitsipas, could become a contender on the sport’s biggest stages in the very near future. • From 2 players who both reached the junior world No. 1 ranking but never won a junior Grand Slam title to a duo who both won junior Grand Slam titles but never reached the junior world No. 1 ranking – 2016 US Open boys’ singles champion Felix Auger-Aliassime faces 2017 Wimbledon boys’ singles champion Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the 3rd match on Kia Arena. Auger-Aliassime had to battle back from 1- 2 down to defeat Emil Ruusuvuori in 5 sets in the 1st round while Davidovich Fokina cruised to a straight sets victory over Alex Bolt – but the Spaniard will need to record a career-best victory against the world No. 9 if he is to progress to the 3rd round today. • Andy Murray returns to John Cain Arena today after recording his first Australian Open match-win since 2017 there on Tuesday, battling to a 5-set win over Nikoloz Basilashvili. Murray will bid to record his 50th Australian Open victory when he plays qualifier Taro Daniel today – should he do so, he will become the 5th man in the Open Era to reach 50 match-wins here, after Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Stefan Edberg. He has never lost a Grand Slam match to a player ranked as low as No. 120 Daniel and has lost just one of his previous 13 matches against qualifiers at the Slams. 2 2022 AUSTRALIAN OPEN DAY 4 MEN’S MATCH NOTES NO. 2 DANIIL MEDVEDEV (RUS) v NICK KYRGIOS (AUS) Head-to-head: Kyrgios leads 2-0 2019 Rome-1000 Clay (O) R64 Kyrgios 63 36 63 2019 Washington Hard (O) FR Kyrgios 76(6) 76(4) A 3rd meeting for Medvedev and Kyrgios, and their first at a Grand Slam. Kyrgios won their 2 previous meetings, both of which came in 2019, despite being the lower-ranked player on both occasions. The pair also met once at junior-level, with Kyrgios recording a 63 63 victory in the 2nd round at 2013 Roehampton. Medvedev has lost Grand Slam matches to players ranked as low as No. 115 Kyrgios on 3 occasions – to No. 131 Ernesto Escobedo in the 1st round on his Grand Slam debut here in 2017, to No. 266 Benjamin Bonzi in the 1st round at 2017 Roland Garros and to No. 124 Ruben Bemelmans in the 2nd round at 2017 Wimbledon. Medvedev is facing an Australian player at the Australian Open for the 3rd time. He has won both of his previous meetings against Australian opponents here – defeating Thanasi Kokkinakis in the 1st round in 2018 and Alexei Popyrin in the 3rd round in 2020. He has a 13-2 win-loss record against Australian players at Tourlevel overall, with his only 2 defeats coming against Kyrgios in 2019. Medvedev has a 4-3 win-loss record against players at their home Grand Slams. In addition to his 2-0 win-loss record against Australians here, he has won both matches he has played against Americans at the US Open but lost all 3 matches he has played against Frenchmen at Roland Garros. He has never faced a British player at Wimbledon.