There may be just one man left standing at the end of the day as local hopes go on the line in round three of the Australian Open tennis.
There are no Australian women left in the singles draw with Samantha Stosur following Casey Dellacqua and Ajla Tomljanovic out the door in the second round on Thursday night.
Stosur played well but couldn’t match big-serving American Coco Vandeweghe and went down 6-4 6-4.
Her match completed a disappointing night for the Australians on Rod Laver Arena, with veteran Lleyton Hewitt blowing a two-set lead to fall to Germany’s Benjamin Becker 2-6 1-6 6-3 6-4 6-2.
Home-town singles hopes now rest with three remaining men who play third-round matches on Friday.
One of those will definitely survive to make the fourth round – with Bernard Tomic taking on another Australian in resurgent Sam Groth.
Nick Kyrgios is also a big chance to make it two facing Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri.
It’s set to be a battle of the big serves between Tomic and Groth with both players possessing match-winning weapons.
Groth, who had a second-round win over another Australian in teen talent Thanasi Kokkinakis, said he would try to focus on winning rather than who his opponent was.
“You try to play the match, not necessarily the name or person at the other end,” he said.
“Obviously you know it’s an Aussie because the crowd is going absolutely bunta out there.
“It’s not easy but you play who you’ve got to play.
“I can’t worry about playing Bernard Tomic. I have to worry about getting through to the fourth round.”
In other Friday matches, second seed Roger Federer plays Italian Andreas Seppi, Maria Sharapova takes on Zarina Diyas from Kazakstan and Rafael Nadal has a third round showdown with Israeli Dudi Sela.
