Three Australians have already reached the third round at Wimbledon in 2022, and there could be a fourth. On Thursday, Nick Kyrgios of Canberra knocked out a seeded player in 26th ranked Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in a sensational second round performance at the All-England Club. Meanwhile also on Thursday, the 19th seed Alex De Minaur of Sydney, Australia beat Great Britain’s Jack Draper 5-7, 7-6, 6-2, 6-3, and in women’s action, Ajla Tomjlanovic of Brisbane beat American Catherine Harrison 6-2, 6-2.
The fourth Australian who is on the verge of making the third round is qualifier Jason Kubler of Brisbane. Kubler was leading Austria’s Dennis Novak 6-3, 6-4, 5-4. The match was postponed until Friday due to darkness.
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Kyrgios’s serve was unbelievable. He had 25 aces compared to only one double fault. Kyrgios will next face Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, the world number four. Tsitsipas made the final of the 2021 French Open before losing in five sets to Novak Djokovic of Serbia. Head-to-head, Kyrgios is 3-1 against Tsitsipas, including a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win in the second round of Halle.
The most significant part of De Minaur’s win over Draper was the second set tiebreak. Here De Minaur beat Draper 7-0 to tie the match at one set apiece. In the third and fourth sets, De Minaur was in complete control. Like in round two, De Minaur will not have the fans on his side as he will be facing Liam Brody of Great Britain. De Minaur beat Broady in the second round of Eastbourne last year, 6-3, 6-4.
Tomljanovic reached the quarterfinals a year ago. She will next face the 2021 French Open champion and number 13 seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic. This will be their first career meeting.
