Carlos Alcaraz Advances: Australian Open 2026 Third Round Secured

Carlos Alcaraz’s career tennis Grand Slam hopes are alive and well at the 2026 Australian Open, after he booked his spot in the next round with a closely contested victory on Wednesday (21 January). Taking centre-stage at the Rod Laver Arena, the Spanish superstar fought off competition from Yannick Hanfmann to win in straight sets 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-2. Both players had their share of the momentum in the first set, as Hanfmann held, then broke serve to establish an early 3-1 lead. Calmness and composure from first seed Alcaraz saw him come from behind a number of times, forcing their epic opener to a tiebreaker. It was the world No. 1 who eventually clinched it, taking one step towards the next round. Set two began in a similar fashion, though it was not long until the Spaniard got a foothold on proceedings to take a commanding two-sets-to-love lead in the Melbourne heat. Alcaraz began to push ahead with a spot in the third round on the line, putting himself on the brink with a 5-2 lead in the third set. Just as the crowd had grown used to across almost three hours on the court, it was a hard-fought final game that saw Hanfmann rescue numerous break points before his opponent eventually held serve to see out the match. “I knew he was going to play great, I know his level… to be honest, it was tougher than I thought,” Alcaraz said in his on-court interview. “I’m really happy that I got through a really difficult first set, then I started to feel a little bit better, tactically I feel I played much better. “Every match is different; the style of the players is different. Yannick has a style [of play] that I’m not really comfortable with on the court, so it wasn’t easy today.” Alcaraz will face one of Michael Zheng or Corentin Moutet in the third round.