Sports

The Latest: Fognini pushes into 4th day in Australia to win

Fabio Fognini is taking no shortcuts so far at the Australian Open.

The 12th-seeded Italian has won a pair of five-setters to get to the third round at Melbourne Park — and because his latest win ended after midnight, he has competed on all four days since the tournament began.

Fognini needed more than four hours and a total of five match points to finally get past Jordan Thompson of Australia 7-6 (4), 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (4) in the second round.

In his opening match, which began Monday but concluded Tuesday after being suspended by rain, Fognini came back to win after falling into a two-sets-to-none hole against Reilly Opelka.

The match against Thompson started Wednesday and wasn’t wrapped up until past 12:10 a.m. on Thursday local time at Margaret Court Arena.

Because that one stretched so long, the last match scheduled for Wednesday on that court — No. 10 Madison Keys vs. Arantxa Rus — was moved to Rod Laver Arena.

Keys beat Rus 7-6 (3), 6-2, closing it out a few minutes after Fognini’s victory.

10:40 p.m.

Roger Federer reached the third round at the Australian Open for the 21st time in a row — that’s every year since his tournament debut in 2000 — by beating Filip Krajinovic 6-1, 6-4, 6-1.

The 20-time major champion has won the title in Australia six times and showed why against the 41st-ranked Krajinovic, winning in 1 hour, 32 minutes.

“I’m feeling really relaxed on court,” the 38-year-old Federer said. “I’m happy. I’m still going, and looking forward to the next one, of course.”

Krajinovic’s first-round match was delayed because of heavy rain on Day 1 of the tournament, and he had to get through a tough five-setter against Quentin Halys. Federer finished off a straight-set first-round win over Steve Johnson in 1:21 on Monday.

“It wasn’t 100% fair he played 3 1/2 hours yesterday and I played zero,” Federer said. “Yeah, I do feel a little sorry … but you’ve got to take advantage of it, I guess.”

Federer will next play John Millman, the Australian who produced an upset win over him at the 2018 U.S. Open.

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9:55 p.m.

Police say up to 20 people were ejected from the Australian Open for disruptive behavior. The group of men were supporting Greek player Maria Sakkari in a late afternoon match on Court 8 against Nao Hibino of Japan.

“About 6.05 p.m. this evening a group of 15-20 males were evicted from the tennis for disruptive behavior,” Victoria state police said in a statement. “The group had received numerous warnings during a match on Court 8 from a match referee, security and police. After the match the group were asked to leave and did so peacefully.”