Same old feeling for Mensik, Musetti the leading Lorenzo

“Rafa, I mean, he showed really, really good performance, good run here in AO,” he said.

“Even before in Canberra [he reached the final and] he won couple of Challengers before. So, yeah, it’s great to see him, great to see all of them coming on tour and coming to compete.”

Fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti also enjoyed a smooth day out after breezing past Italian compatriot Lorenzo Sonego 6-3 6-3 6-4 at Margaret Court Arena.

The 23-year-old, who has reached at least the quarterfinals at the other three majors, had to put friendship aside to book his second-straight AO third-round berth.

“It was not an easy match to prepare, to play and to deal with because Lorenzo is one of my best friends on tour,” Musetti said.

“We recently had a title together in doubles [in Hong Kong], so we shared a lot of nice memories, so it’s not easy to separate those things in the court.”

Musetti’s fellow 23-year-old, eighth seed Ben Shelton, ended an inspired Dane Sweeny’s bid for a maiden Grand Slam third round at John Cain Arena.

The American – a semifinalist at Melbourne Park last year – took down the Australian 6-3 6-2 6-2.

“I think that you run into guys that are playing at a very high level, playing some of their best tennis when you get there, and certainly every matchup is different,” Shelton said.

“You know, going from a quarters playing somebody to [Jannik] Sinner in a semis, that’s a different problem to deal with, but I think that that’s kind of just the normal being out on tour.

“You have so many different matchups, and you have to bring something different to every match.”

Late-blooming Valentin Vacherot is next, after the 30th seed brought down Australian Rinky Hijikata 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-2 at Kia Arena on Thursday.

It continued a whirlwind six months for the 27-year-old, following a surprise first Masters 1000 title in Shanghai over his cousin, Arthur Rinderknech, in October.

The win made Vacherot the first from Monaco to reach the third round at a Slam and further proof his unlikely title run in China was no flash in the pan.

“I’m sure so many people thought it was just the one week. Then even though I did well after in Paris as well, it was probably just about my confidence of the moment, so I’m just happy to win as many matches as I can,” Vacherot said.

“I just play tennis and try to play as good this season and every tournament. We’ll see. We do the counts at the end.”