Melbourne, Australia – Last year's champ Novak Djokovic and seeded Spaniard David Ferrer were both winners on Thursday, advancing to the third round of the Australian Open.
Djokovic, the tournament's top seed, rolled past Colombia's Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. The world No. 1 player has now won 34 of his last 36 Grand Slam matches and is seeking a third straight Grand Slam title and a third Aussie crown.
Ferrer had a little more trouble in his match, dropping a hard-fought first set before outlasting American Ryan Sweeting 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Sweeting recorded nine double faults and hit 73 unforced errors in the loss.
Also on Thursday, France's Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, the tournament's sixth seed, defeated Ricardo Mello of Brazil 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in straight sets, and ninth- seeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic took down Australia's own James Duckworth 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
A pair of seeded players were ousted in the tournament's fourth day as 32- seeded Russian Alex Bogolomov dropped the first two sets of his match before taking the next two, but faltered in the fifth set to take a marathon 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-4 defeat at the hands of France's Michael Llodra. Spain's Marcel Granollers, the 26th seed, was defeated by Portugal's Frederico Gil 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
In other matches Thursday, 23rd-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic downed Germany's Philipp Petzschner 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela, the 27th seed, rolled to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 decision over Spain's Pablo Andujar and Nicolas Mahut of France earned a 1-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2, 6-2 decision over Japan's Tatsuma Ito.
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