Rafael Nadal extended his winning streak against fellow left-handers to 18 with a 7-5, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Cameron Norrie that earned him a place in the Australian Open's fourth round.
Nadal is chasing a men's record 21st major title but entered the tournament with back stiffness and without any competitive matches in 2021. He reached the fourth round at Melbourne Park for the 14th time in 16 trips.
The No. 2-seeded Nadal had a solid outing against the No. 69-ranked Norrie. He had only one double-fault and was broken just once. Uncharacteristically, he did have more unforced errors (35) than winners (33).
Nadal will next play No. 16 Fabio Fognini. The veteran Italian had a straight-set win over Australia's last hope in the men's draw, 21st-seeded Alex de Minaur.
Fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev was 0-6 in career five-setters, and his match against No. 28-seeded Filip Krajinovic looked like it was going all the way in the third round of the Australian Open.
After some angry outbursts from an increasingly animated and chatty Medvedev directed at his box in an otherwise empty Rod Laver Arena—fans have been banned as a COVID-19 precaution—his coach, Gilles Cervara, got up and left.
Medvedev had been bothered by a problem with his upper left leg and had a medical timeout for treatment late in the fourth set.
The win stretched Medvedev's winning streak to 17 matches, including his successful run to the title at the 2020 season-ending ATP Finals and with Russia last week at the ATP Cup.
Medvedev, the US Open finalist last year, will next play Mackenzie McDonald, the unseeded American who beat Lloyd Harris in straight sets to equal his best Grand Slam result by reaching the round of 16 at the Australian Open.
Andrey Rublev had a 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 win over 39-year-old Feliciano Lopez and stayed on course for an all-Russia quarterfinal match against Medvedev.
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Rublev and Medevedev both went unbeaten in the 12-team ATP Cup. The seventh-seeded Rublev, who will meet Casper Ruud of Norway in the fourth round, won a tour-high five titles in 2020 and, with a 41-10 win-loss record, finished the year equal with Novak Djokovic for most tour-level match wins.
The Russian men had one loss, with No. 19 Karen Khachanov going down 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) to No. 9 Matteo Berrettini. Fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Mikael Ymer of Sweden 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.
Other winners from the warmup week are through on the women's side.
Top-ranked Ash Barty, who won the Yarra Valley Classic last week for her second title on home soil, beat Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 6-2, 6-4 to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open for the third straight year.
Barty rallied from 4-2 down in the second set and broke Alexandrova's serve to make it 4-all on her sixth break point. She then won 10 of the last 15 points to close out the match.
Barty next faces American Shelby Rogers, who beat No. 21 Anett Kontaveit 6-4, 6-3.
Elise Mertens needed just 62 minutes for a 6-2, 6-1 victory over 11th-seeded Belinda Bencic.
The 2018 Australian Open semifinalist will take a seven-match winning streak into her match against Karolina Muchova in the fourth round.
No. 25-seeded Muchova staged an astounding second-set comeback from a 5-0 deficit in near silence, which only made the turnaround seem more bizarre as she beat No. 6 Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 7-5.
No. 22 Jennifer Brady and No. 28 Donna Vekic had wins to advance to fourth-round showdown.
No. 61-ranked Jessica Pegula reached the fourth round by drubbing Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-1.
Meanwhile, veteran Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the mixed doubles event with a straight-set loss in the opening round to draw curtains on India's campaign at this year's Australian Open.
Bopanna and his Chinese partner Yingying Duan lost 4-6 4-6 to the pair of American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and United Kingdom's Jamie Murray in a first round match that lasted an hour and three minutes.
Bopanna and Japan's Ben McLachlan had earlier bowed out of the men's doubles event after a 4-6 6-7 (0) defeat to the Korean wild card pair of Ji Sung Nam and Min-Kyu Song in an opening round match.
Divij Sharan and Ankita Raina had already crashed out of the men's and women's doubles events after suffering straight-set defeats in the opening round on Thursday.
Ankita, the fifth Indian woman tennis player ever to secure a place in the main draw of a Grand Slam event, and her partner Mihaela Buzarnecu of Romania lost 3-6 0-6 at the hands of Australian wild cards Olivia Gadecki and Belinda Woolcock.
Divij and his Slovakian teammate Igor Zelenay lost 1-6 4-6 to the German combination of Yannick Hanfmann Kevin Krawietz in the first round.
