Australia’s top-ranked male and female players have waltzed into the French Open third round on the back of straight sets wins, with Nick Kyrgios and Samantha Stosur making light work of their opponents.
But wildcard Jordan Thompson suffered a heartbreaking exit in his Roland Garros debut.
After courting controversy in his opening win on Sunday, Kyrgios kept his nose clean against a hopelessly outclassed world No.123 Igor Sijsling on Wednesday, winning 6-3 6-2 6-1.
Stosur, too, did things with relative ease – breaking her Chinese doubles partner Shuai Zhang five times in her 78-minute 6-3 6-4 victory.
Stosur will next face 11th seed, and last year’s runner up, Lucie Safarova, on Friday.
Kyrgios finished the thrashing with a ripping backhand – one of his 35 winners, compared to 13 unforced errors.
He also won five breaks of serve and closed out the match in 70 minutes – faster even than Rafael Nadal’s 80-minute demolition of Australian Sam Groth on Tuesday.
The 17th seed will next face French nemesis Richard Gasquet, after he enjoyed a breezy straight sets win over American Bjorn Fratangelo.
Thompson, meanwhile, was outlasted in a five-set epic by the 37-year-old 27th seed Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (4-7) 12-10 in 4 hours and 31 minutes.
He was seeking to become just the second Australian wildcard to reach the French Open third round, following in the footsteps of Thanasi Kokkinakis last year.
But he fell in cruel fashion, as Karlovic sent down a tournament-high 41 aces.
Thompson incredibly saved triple break point in the 15th game of the fifth set to hold serve – where a break would have allowed Karlovic to serve for the match.
It proved to no avail, however, as Karlovic eventually broke him with a deep backhand winner in the 21st set and all Thompson could do was stare at the sky before Karlovic sent down three aces to serve out the match.
Bernard Tomic plays on Thursday (Thursday night AEST).
Meanwhile, there was Australian carnage among the doubles matches, with John Millman, Bernard Tomic, Sam Groth and the Rodionova sisters, Arina and Anastasia, all suffering defeats.
Millman, who lost his singles first-round clash with John Isner on Tuesday, and doubles partner Ken Skupski went down in straight sets 6-1 7-5 to Argentinian pair Federico Delbonis and Andres Molteni.
Groth and Tomic teamed up but were no match for the French top seeds Nicholas Mahut and Pierre-Hughes Herbert, who won 6-3 6-3.
Veteran left-hander Chris Guccione, though, advanced to the second round with his Brazilian partner Andre Sa, downing Colombian 13th seeds Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal.
