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Djokovic passes French test

Melbourne - World No 1 Novak Djokovic tussled with French teenager Quentin Halys in the third set before reaching the Australian Open third round in straight sets on Wednesday.

The 10-time Grand Slam winner and defending champion downed the 187th-ranked Halys 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) in one hour 40 minutes in the night match on Rod Laver Arena.

It was all plain sailing for the Serbian top seed as he reeled off the opening two sets for the loss of just three games in 56 minutes.

Djokovic looked set to wrap it up quickly heading into the final set before Halys got lucky with a net cord for his only service break of the Serb.

Djokovic immediately broke back but Halys, 19, doggedly stuck to his task, making the Serb fight for his victory in the tiebreak.

"Quentin is new on the tour but definitely today he hasn't been playing like he's been just on the tour for under a year," Djokovic said.

"He played some great tennis and I want to congratulate him for fighting and especially in the third set."

Djokovic finished with five service breaks and hit 42 winners with just 14 unforced errors.

It set Djokovic up with a third-round match against Italian Andreas Seppi, who stunned Roger Federer in the same round at last year's tournament.

The Serb's bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam fell just short during a brilliant 2015 season.

He wore down Andy Murray to win last year's final at Melbourne Park, and finished with three Grand Slams among 11 tournament victories in a stellar season, with a win-loss record of 82-6.

Djokovic is projected to face Japan's seventh seed Kei Nishikori in the quarters and 17-time major winner Roger Federer in the semi-finals.

Results from the Australian Open Grand Slam at Melbourne Park on Wednesday:

Men

Second round

Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt Quentin Halys (FRA) 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3)

Andreas Seppi (ITA x28) bt Denis Kudla (USA) 7-5, 6-4, 6-4

Federico Del Bonis (ARG) bt Renzo Olivo (ARG) 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-2

Gilles Simon (FRA x14) bt Evgeny Donskoy (RUS) 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7/1), 4-6, 7-5

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x9) bt Omar Jasika (AUS) 7-5, 6-1, 6-4

Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) bt Noah Rubin (USA) 6-3, 6-4, 6-0

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP x26) bt Daniel Brands (GER) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/0), 6-3

Kei Nishikori (JPN x7) bt Austin Krajicek (USA) 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3

Roger Federer (SUI x3) bt Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) 6-3, 7-5, 6-1

Grigor Dimitrov (BUL x27) bt Marco Trungelliti (ARG) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5

Dominic Thiem (AUT x19) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 6-3, 6-1, 6-3

David Goffin (BEL x15) bt Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 6-4, 0-6, 6-4, 6-2

Marin Cilic (CRO x12) bt Albert Ramos (ESP) 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4)

Roberto Bautista (ESP x24) bt Dusan Lajovic (SRB) 4-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1

Nick Kyrgios (AUS x29) bt Pablo Cuevas (URU) 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7/2)

Tomas Berdych (CZE x6) bt Mirza Basic (BIH) 6-4, 6-0, 6-3

Women

Second round

Serena Williams (USA x1) bt Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE) 6-1, 6-2

Darya Kasatkina (RUS) bt Ana Konjuh (CRO) 6-4, 6-3

Margarita Gasparyan (RUS) bt Kurumi Nara (JPN) 6-4, 6-4

Yulia Putintseva (KAZ) bt Xinyun Han (CHN) 6-3, 6-1

Belinda Bencic (SUI x12) bt Timea Babos (HUN) 6-3, 6-3

Kateryna Bondarenko (UKR) bt Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS x23) 6-1, 7-5

Lauren Davis (USA) bt Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 7-6 (9/7) abandon

Maria Sharapova (RUS x5) bt Aliaksandra Sasnovich (BLR) 6-2, 6-1

Agnieszka Radwanska (POL x4) bt Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) 6-4, 6-2

Monica Puig (PUR) bt Kristyna Pliskova (CZE) 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 9-7

Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER) bt Wang Qiang (CHN) 6-3, 6-4

Roberta Vinci (ITA x13) bt Irina Falconi (USA) 6-2, 6-3

Carla Suarez (ESP x10) bt Maria Sakkari (GRE) 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-2

Elizaveta Kulichkova (RUS) bt Monica Niculescu (ROM) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4

Kristina Mladenovic (FRA x28) bt Nicole Gibbs (USA) 6-1, 7-6 (7/4)

Daria Gavrilova (AUS) bt Petra Kvitova (CZE x6) 6-4, 6-4

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