Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns a shot during the men's singles second round match against Gael Monfils of France at Australian Open 2018 in Melbourne, Australia, Jan. 18, 2018. Novak Djokovic won 3-1. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)
MELBOURNE, Jan 19 (Xinhua) -- On day five of the Australian Open, there was only one match that local fans had their eye on: Friday evening's round three clash between hometown hero Nick Kyrgios and Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
After a scorching hot day that saw the mercury rise above 43 degrees celsius, temperatures began to ease off as the sun went down, and over 15,000 people poured into the Rod Laver Arena to see the contest.
The match was so highly anticipated that world number one Rafael Nadal was bumped from centre court in favor of Kyrgios and moved to the smaller Margaret Court Arena.
With a short career that has often been marred by controversy, discipline issues and accusations of lacking effort, tonight the world number 18 looked passionate, determined and in fine form.
A more mature Kyrgios appears to have found composure in his game and won the match in four sets on the back of his lethal serve, after battling through three tough tie breaks.
The final score ended 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5), to the delight of the home crowd.
In the rest of the men's bracket, Rafael Nadal took down Damir Dzumhur in straight sets and Marin Cilic cruised past Ryan Harrison.
It took Grigor Dimitrov and Pablo Carreno Busta four sets to get by their third round opponents.
It was a little tougher for Andreas Seppi, who edged out Ivo Karlovic in a 5-set thriller and equally as tough for Englishman Kyle Edmund, who scraped past Nikoloz Basilashvili.
In women's third round action, the extreme heat caused serious problems for some players. Frenchwoman Alize Cornet appeared to collapse in her match against Belgium's Elise Mertens.
In the end, she battled on to finish the match, but went down in straight sets.
The dream run of 15-year-old prodigy Marta Kostyuk came to an end at the hands of fellow Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, and number two in the world Caroline Wozniacki comfortably dealt with Kiki Bertens in their late-night fixture.
Jelena Ostapenko had a slightly harder time, fighting back from a set down against Anett Kontaveit, to move onto the last 16.
