Three-time finalist Daniil Medvedev has survived a third-round scare to scrape into the Australian Open’s last 16 with a sapping five-set win over Fabian Marozsan.
After winning only one grand slam match in 2025, Russia’s former world No.1’s woes looked set to continue when he trailed Marozsan by two sets to love on Margaret Court Arena.
But he dug deep to pull out a 6-7 (5-7) 4-6 7-5 6-0 6-3 third-round victory on Friday.
“It was getting close to an end,” Medvedev conceded after edging to within two games of losing to the lowly ranked Hungarian.
“It was a very tough match, and last year I lost probably all my grand slam matches when I was 2-0 down.
“Fabian played unbelievable in the first two sets. He played great and I was like, ‘Look, if I lose, I lose, but I’m just going to try and fight’.
“I was not calm. Just think about what I need to do.
“My shots were getting better and better, even the first two sets they were not so bad, and so I did manage to stay calm for sure in the fifth set.”
Unbeaten in eight matches this year, Medvedev faces an Open rematch on Sunday against young gun Learner Tien.
The 25th-seeded Tien beat Portugal’s Nuno Borges 7-6 (11-9) 6-4 6-2 in two hours and two minutes on Kia Arena to back up his breakout fourth-round appearance in Melbourne last year.
In 2025, the American famously outlasted Medvedev in a five-set second-round match that went into the early hours of the morning.
“I’m super happy,” the 20-year-old Tien said.
“I actually played my third round last year on this court too, so this court’s very special to me and I love playing on this court.
“Really physical match, especially the first set. Super-long first set, it would have been tough for either guy to lose that.
“So that was really big for me to get that first, and thankfully I was able to carry that momentum through the rest of the match.”
World No.20 Tommy Paul, an AO semi-finalist three years ago, enjoyed a saloon passage through to the last 16.
The American was leading Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-1 6-1 when the 14th seed retired with a leg injury.
Davidovich Fokina called the physio for a left hamstring or thigh issue and couldn’t continue.
