Thanasi Kokkinakis is the last Aussie standing in the men’s Roland-Garros draw after Alex de Minaur was shocked in straight sets.
De Minaur, the draw’s No.18 seed, was beaten by unseeded Argentine player Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3.
While “The Demond” produced some magical moments – as he always does – he was hit off the court by the powerful underdog.
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Kokkinakis, meantime, will carry the Aussie flag alone as he takes on Karen Khachanov in round three in Paris. Max Purcell was also bundled out in the second round.
De Minaur wasn’t the only seeded men’s player stunned overnight, with No.8 Jannik Sinner losing a wild 6-7 (0), 7-6 (7), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 epic to 79th-ranked Daniel Altmaie.
No.4 Casper Ruud, No.12 Frances Tiafoe and No.15 Borna Coric all won.
Sinner held two match points while serving for the victory at 5-4 in the fourth set but couldn’t convert either. Altmaier came all the way back to end things with an ace on his fifth match point.
“I don’t know if you can call it a historical match,” Altmaier said as he wiped away tears, “but I think it was one to remember.”
Mirra Andreeva is the latest teen sensation in tennis, a 16-year-old Russian who is the youngest player to win a match in the women’s main draw at the French Open since 2005.
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Do the math: That’s before she was born.
The 143rd-ranked Andreeva made her way through qualifying rounds last week without dropping a set to earn her debut berth in the women’s bracket at a grand slam tournament — and she still is making things look easy so far at Roland Garros.
A 6-1, 6-2 victory over Diane Perry of France in 77 minutes put her in the third round; that followed a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Alison Riske-Amritraj of the US that lasted 56 minutes.
Next up will be a contest against 2022 Roland-Garros runner-up Coco Gauff, who beat Julia Grabher 6-2, 6-3. Gauff, a 19-year-old American, is seeded No.6 and made her initial breakthrough by beating Venus Williams en route to the fourth round at Wimbledon at age 14.
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Gauff is one of just 12 seeded women left in the field, the fewest to reach the third round at Roland-Garros since the number of seeds expanded to 32 in 2002.
Andreeva and Gauff have practiced together, but that won’t mean much Saturday.
“The practice and the match is different, so I might also play different,” Andreeva said. “I don’t know. Who knows?”
De Minaur knocked out of Roland-Garros
In the match before Andreeva vs Perry at Court Simonne Mathieu, another qualifier made it to the third round when Kayla Day, a Californian ranked 138th, knocked out No.20 Madison Keys 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Keys, the runner-up at the 2017 US Open and a semi-finalist at the 2018 French Open, made 74 unforced errors, 51 more than Day.
Day, 23, is playing in a major tournament for the first time since 2017 after a litany of injuries — she listed a torn thigh muscle, a fractured foot, torn hip labrums and a bout with mononucleosis.
The exits by seeded women continued with Bernarda Pera defeating No.22 Donna Vekic 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, although No.1 Iga Swiatek, No.4 Elena Rybakina and No.7 Ons Jabeur all advanced in straight sets.
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