Adrian Mannarino, the No 20 seed, advanced to the last 16 of the Australian Open by defeating American Ben Shelton, the No 16 seed, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4 at Melbourne Park.
In a battle of two left-handers, the Frenchman had to fight from 2-1 down, taking the fourth and fifth sets having also won the first on a tiebreak.
Mannarino continues his fine form from last year, during which he won a season-best three ATP titles.
His reward for a long and physical win over America’s talented youngster Shelton is a fourth-round meeting with 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, the top seed, next.
Ahead of his victory, the 35-year-old Frenchman won against Swiss Stan Wawrinka (6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0) and Spaniard Jaume Munar (6-3, 6-3, 1-6, 2-6, 6-3).
Shelton, ranked No 16, won against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (6-2, 7-6 (2), 7-5) and edged out Australian Christopher O’Connell (6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5)) in the previous rounds.
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Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 58.910.000, most recent results first):
- Alexander Zverev vs. Alex Michelsen
- Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Daniil Medvedev
- Cameron Norrie vs. Casper Ruud
- Grigor Dimitrov vs. Nuno Borges
- Arthur Cazaux vs. Tallon Griekspoor
- Juncheng Shang vs. Carlos Alcaraz
- Ugo Humbert vs. Hubert Hurkacz
- Tommy Paul vs. Miomir Kecmanovic
- Sebastian Korda vs. Andrey Rublev: friday
- Alex De Minaur (10) beat Flavio Cobolli (Q): 6-3, 6-3, 6-1
- Novak Djokovic beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry (30): 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (2)
- Stefanos Tsitsipas (7) beat Luca Van Assche: 6-3, 6-0, 6-4
- Taylor Fritz (12) beat Fabian Marozsan: 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2
- Jannik Sinner (4) beat Sebastian Baez (26): 6-0, 6-1, 6-3
- Karen Khachanov (15) beat Tomas Machac: 6-4, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (5)