Alcaraz flirts with personal record in dominant Aussie Open win

Carlos Alcaraz nearly set a personal-best mark for fewest games lost in a Grand Slam match in a dominant victory against Yoshihito Nishioka Wednesday at the Australian Open. The Spaniard dropped just five games in a 6-0, 6-1, 6-4 victory, one more than he conceded against J.J. Wolf last year at Roland Garros.

In a sharp second-round display, Alcaraz played the percentages while mixing in power and touch to perfection to overwhelm Nishioka. He lost just four points in a lightning-quick opening set and won the first nine games before his opponent held for the first time.

"I think the less time you spend on the court at the Grand Slams, especially at the beginning of the other tournament, I think it's going to be better, especially physically," Alcaraz said post-match. "I'm feeling great. I just tried to be focused on spending as little time as I can."

Acknowledging the gulf in class on the day, Nishioka cracked a smile after encouraging Alcaraz's ball to sail long on game point. The Margaret Court Arena crowd roared their approval during the feel-good moment, while Nishioka blasted a ball into the air in a light-hearted celebration.

Extending his perfect record against lefties at the Grand Slams to 8-0, Alcaraz clinched victory in one hour, 22 minutes. He hit 14 aces and advanced without facing a break point, according to Infosys Stats — after facing four break points in his straight-sets opening win against Alexander Shevchenko.

"I'm really happy with the serve today," assessed Alcaraz, who wrote "Am I a serve bot?" on the camera lens. "This is something that I worked on in the preseason. In the first round I struggled a little bit, so I wasn't too happy with the serve. Yesterday I was more focused on practising the serve. I spent more time just serving with Juan Carlos [Ferrero], with my team, and it's something that I really want to be better. So I'm just glad that today it worked pretty well. Hopefully in the next round it is going to be better."

⚡️ Irrepressible energy ⚡️

Alcaraz is an unrelenting force as he moves through to R3 with a 6-0 6-1 6-4 win over Nishioka 🔥@AustralianOpen | #AO2025 pic.twitter.com/wwrbrnyhlN

— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 15, 2025

After improving to 2-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head against Nishioka, Alcaraz will next meeet Portugal's Nuno Borges, who upset 27th seed Jordan Thompson 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 later on Wednesday. The No. 3 in the PIF ATP Rankings is bidding to become the youngest man in history to complete the career Grand Slam this fortnight.

Should Alcaraz defeat Borges, his potential fourth-round opponents in Melbourne are Jack Draper and Aleksandar Vukic, both of whom pulled through five-set marathons on Wednesday.

The 15th-seeded Draper pulled off a thrilling comeback win against home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis amid an electric night-session atmosphere inside John Cain Arena. Kokkinakis served for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set before Draper stormed back for a 6-7(3), 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory after four hours and 35 minutes.

Now into the third round at the Australian Open for the first time in three appearances, Draper will again attempt to nullify the home crowd when he takes on Vukic, the home favourite that currently sits at No. 68 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Vukic earlier upset 22nd seed Sebastian Korda 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.