Novak Djokovic had to dig deep at times against French qualifier Enzo Couacaud but rolled into the third round 6-1 6-7(5) 6-2 6-0 to continue his quest for a 10th Australian Open crown and a 22nd Grand Slam title.
The Serbian looked at his imperious best as he eased through the opening set but hit a roadblock in the 74-minute second when world number 191 Couacaud upped his pace and intensity to level up the contest in a tiebreak.
Fourth seed Djokovic changed his shirt and brought in the heavy artillery to whip through the final two sets on Rod Laver Arena and set up a third-round date with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
The 35-year-old took a medical time out to change the strapping on his left thigh in the second set but otherwise appeared largely unhindered by the hamstring niggle he sustained at a warm-up tournament in Adelaide two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, former world No.1 Andy Murray produced one of his greatest ever comebacks to sink home hope Thanasi Kokkinakis in a titanic second-round thriller at the Australian Open in the early hours of Friday morning.
The 35-year-old Scot looked down and out against an inspired Kokkinakis as he trailed by two sets and 2-5 but displayed his trademark warrior spirit to somehow claw out a 4-6 6-7(4) 7-6(5) 6-3 7-5 victory after five hours and 45 minutes.
When Murray finally got the job done in what was his 250th Grand Slam match, the clock was just past 4.05am local time but a sizeable and vociferous crowd had remained glued to their seats inside the Margaret Court Arena.
It was another stupendous effort from the three-time Grand Slam champion whose career has been littered by such battles and who has stubbornly refused to call it a day since having a partly metal hip inserted in 2019.
Bizarrely he will now play Roberto Bautista Agut, the man who beat him at the 2019 Australian Open, after which Murray's career appeared to be over because of the hip condition.
In the women's draw, second seed Ons Jabeur crashed out of the second round of the Australian Open after an error-strewn display in a 6-1 5-7 6-1 loss to former French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova.
The Tunisian, who stormed up the rankings last year after runs to the final at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, sprayed 50 unforced errors and had her serve broken eight times in the 102 minute contest.
There were only flashes of the brilliant racket skills that have made her such a favourite on the WTA tour as Vondrousova matched everything Jabeur threw at her on a chilly evening on Rod Laver Arena.
Jabeur saved some face by breaking the Olympic silver medallist when she was serving for the match for the first time but Vondrousova broke straight back to move on to a third-round meeting with fellow Czech Linda Fruhvirtova.
Reuters
