John Millman has bowed out of the Madrid Open after losing in straight sets to Italian 10th seed Fabio Fognini.
Australian No.3 Millman, who won his previous match against American Steve Johnson, was unable to maintain that momentum as he went down 6-2 6-2 to world No.12 Fognini, who now plays Austria’s Dominic Thiem in round three.
Rafael Nadal reached the third round with a 6-3 6-3 win over Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime on Wednesday.
Nadal lost only four points on his serve in the first set and broke Auger-Aliassime three times in the second to close out the match.
The second-ranked Spaniard is trying to rebound from consecutive eliminations in the semifinals of both Monte Carlo and Barcelona, which marked his worst start to the clay-court season in four years.
A five-time champion in Madrid, Nadal will next face American Frances Tiafoe, who defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 3-6 6-3.
Earlier, Stan Wawrinka defeated Guido Pella 6-3 6-4 while Kei Nishikori got past Hugo Dellien 7-5 7-5.
France’s 16th-seeded Gael Monfils managed to fight back against Marton Fucsovics of Hungary to advance to the last-16 round where he is set to play Roger Federer.
The Frenchman, who won his eighth career title at the 2019 Rotterdam Open, needed almost two hours to edge a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Fucsovics.
It was the first time for both players to face off against each other.
Monfils, world No.18, is now set to square off against third-ranked Federer in the round of 16, who he will be playing for the first time since the 2015 French Open, when the Swiss great was victorious.
Juan Martin Del Potro squandered a match point in a 6-3 2-6 7-5 loss to Laslo Djere in his second tournament since injuring his knee in October.
Del Potro converted only two of his 11 break opportunities, failing to capitalise on the match point at 5-4 in the final set. The Argentine had last played in Delray Beach in February, losing in the quarter-finals.