Two titans of the game face battle of the generations in Australian Open third round

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are looking as dominant as ever but the two titans of the modern game will face a battle of the generations here in the third round of the Australian Open.

While Federer’s 7-6, 7-6, 6-3 victory over Dan Evans secured a third-round encounter with 21-year-old Taylor Fritz, Nadal beat Matthew Ebden 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to earn a meeting with 19-year-old Alex de Minaur.

Fritz, who beat the No 30 seed, Gael Monfils, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, has taken a while to start realising his potential, while De Minaur has made huge strides in the last year. Having begun 2018 outside the world’s top 200, the 19-year-old Australian is now up to No 29 and will make further progress at the end of this tournament.

De Minaur, who won the first ATP title of his career last weekend, showed great resilience to win his second-round match after nearly four hours. He beat Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 4-6, 6-3 and talked afterwards about his excitement at the prospect of facing Nadal. “It’s going to be incredible, just to step out there on court with him,” he said.

Nadal’s game looked in good shape against Ebden, whose challenge faded quickly after he failed to take an opportunity to break serve at 3-3 in the opening set. A double fault saw the Australian drop his serve in the following game as Nadal took command.

Looking ahead to his next match, Nadal said he had known for a while that De Minaur had the potential to be a top player. “I think he improved a lot during the last three years,” the world No 2 said. “Today he is one of the best players of the world. He's young, very young. He is winning a lot of matches. It will be a tough one. I need to be ready for it.”

Fritz, a 6ft 4in American, broke into the world’s top 100 three years ago but has taken his time to make further progress. He is currently ranked No 50 and should move up to a career-high position following this tournament.

Frances Tiafoe, another emerging American, struck a further blow for the next generation with his 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Kevin Anderson, last year’s Wimbledon runner-up, who received treatment during the match for a problem with his right arm.

Tiafoe, who fought back from a set and 3-0 down, said afterwards: “I went to a different place. I dug insanely deep. It's all about competing. Guys are so good. It's just about how badly you want it. I want it real bad.”

A third young American, 21-year-old, Reilly Opelka, was unable to build on his first-round victory over John Isner and was beaten 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 by Thomas Fabbiano, despite standing 15 inches taller than the Italian at 6ft 11in and hitting 67 aces to his opponent’s two.

Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova will meet in one of the highlights of the third round after beating Swedish opponents with something to spare. Wozniacki beat Johanna Larsson 6-1, 6-3, while Sharapova crushed Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 6-1.

Wozniacki, the defending champion, said after her victory: “I thought it was a fine match. I think she stepped it up a little bit in the second set. I think I served well.”

Angelique Kerber, the No 2 seed, beat a fellow left-hander, Beatriz Haddad Maia, 6-2, 6-3. The Wimbledon champion will now face an Australian wild card, Kimberly Birrell, who beat the No 29 seed, Donna Vekic, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.