Logo

MELBOURNE (AFP) – French 12th seed Gael Monfils scored an impressive 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 win over 17th seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro in the third round of the Australian Open here Saturday.

Monfils came into the tournament overshadowed by higher-profile countrymen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon, despite some impressive results this year, including victory over Rafael Nadal in Doha.

He dominated Almagro over the early part of the match, breaking the Spaniard once in the first set and twice in the second to open up a 2-0 lead.

Almagro fought back hard in the third set and games went on serve until the Spaniard was serving at 5-6.

On the first point of the game Monfils hit a backhand return that appeared to land wide, but which was called in.

After checking with his coach, Almagro asked for a Hawkyeye challenge only to be told he was not allowed to as he hadn't asked for it immediately.

Almagro argued with the umpire for some minutes without success and appeared distracted when he went back to serve, promptly losing the game to 15 to hand the match to Monfils.

Monfils will play either Simon or Croatia's Mario Ancic in the fourth round.