Melbourne (AFP)

Gaël Monfils will be the only one of a contingent of 18 entered in the men's and women's tables to defend French chances at the Australian Open from the third round: a situation that had not arisen since 2005.

"It's hard to fall on them every time because we all work, we try to do the maximum. There are some who have physical glitches but who give themselves anyway," pleaded Monfils who qualified Thursday by beating the giant (2.11m) and ancient (41 years in February) Croatian Ivo Karlovic.

Thursday, Alizé Cornet, Gilles Simon and Pierre-Hugues Herbert fell. Of the 18 Tricolores in the main draw in Melbourne, 10 disappeared in the first round and 7 in the second.

"If we take each player, he trains and gives his maximum. There are periods, tables a little harder," said Monfils.

"Elders" have indeed had complicated tables and circumstances, like Jo-Wilfried Tsonga forced to give up on injury, Benoît Paire, forced to play two five-set matches in 24 hours due to the rain who disrupted the program on the first day, or even Gilles Simon who came across a Nick Kyrgios in a good day in front of his audience, or Kristina Mladenovic who had inherited the world No.2 Karolina Pliskova from the first round. The "youth" unfortunately did not shine either.

- "Very near future" -

"We want them to arrive a little faster, but it's not easy. If the results for the moment are less than our great tennis nation, in the very near future it will be again top, "assured Monfils.

"There are players who can be born at 23-24 and have another 10 years of their careers. You don't have to stress too much because you have a good reservoir, good structures, so the results will come back very quickly", he added.

After the fumes, rain and wind, it was the sand that thwarted the program on Thursday, forcing the organizers to postpone the start of the games on the outdoor courts soiled with ocher powder. The strong winds that swept through Melbourne on Wednesday carried sand which was deposited by the heavy rains overnight.

Taking advantage of the roofs of the main enclosures, Karolina Pliskova (2nd) and Daniil Medvedev (4th) qualified in the early afternoon.

The Russian, a valiant finalist at the US Open in September, dismissed the Spanish qualifier Pedro Martinez (168th) but insisted on emphasizing the difficulty of this match, "especially in the first set".

- "Less experience" -

"But he has less experience than me so even when he played fire in the first set, I knew that I had to hang on and be present throughout the match," said Medvedev (23).

Pliskova, it continued without problem its course in Melbourne, even if it estimated not to have delivered "a beautiful match" against the German Laura Siegemund (72nd).

Overall, the favorites again held their rank.

Dominic Thiem, 5th in the world, dropped two sets but finally won against Australian Alex Bolt (140th).

On the contrary, Alexander Zverev (7th) showed himself to be better than his start to the year. "I feel much better than at the ATP Cup," said the 22-year-old German who lost his three games in this new national team competition.

"My service did not work well in the ATP Cup and here I am in the 3rd round without having yet lost a set", he noted after eliminating the Belarusian Egor Gerasimov, currently 98th in the world but that he quickly sees integrating the Top 50.

This 4th day in Melbourne ends in the Rod Laver Arena with the 2nd round of Rafael Nadal (N.1 world), against the Argentinian Federico Delbonis (76th).

© 2020 AFP