{"id":428701,"date":"2026-01-21T23:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428701\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T23:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:12:08","slug":"carlos-alcaraz-marches-on-at-australian-open-after-golfing-with-roger-federer-australian-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/428701\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz marches on at Australian Open after golfing with Roger Federer | Australian Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s preparations for his second-round victory at the Australian Open<\/a> included a round of golf in Melbourne with Roger Federer, whose abilities off the tee he praised following a 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2 win against Yannick Hanfmann.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s as beautiful as his tennis,\u201d Alcaraz said of Federer\u2019s golf swing. \u201cI\u2019m not surprised. It\u2019s unbelievable. Everything he does, he does in style, really beautiful. On the golf course, it\u2019s a really beautiful swing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alcaraz has become a golf obsessive in recent years, with the Spaniard frequently playing a round during tournaments to unwind between matches. \u201cI think he has been playing for two years now and his level is really good,\u201d Alcaraz said of the Swiss tennis great who won 20 grand slam titles, including eight Wimbledon titles. \u201cI\u2019ve been playing five and he\u2019s already beating me. It hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

On court, Alcaraz continued to build momentum in Melbourne as he escaped a tight first-set tie-break before easing to victory in his second match of his 2026 season to reach the third round. The 22-year-old world No 1 will next face Corentin Moutet, the 32nd seed, as he attempts to become the youngest male player to win a career grand slam.<\/p>\n

Cameron Norrie is the last British player standing in Melbourne after the 26th seed continued his excellent grand slam form by holding his nerve to close out a tight 6-1, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (5) win against Emilio Nava of the US.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s Cameron Norrie in action during his second-round defeat of Emilio Nava. Photograph: Tingshu Wang\/Reuters<\/p>\n

In a tight fourth set, Norrie had established a 4-3 lead in the fourth set tie-break when, out of nowhere, heavy rain stopped play. An hour later, Norrie returned to close out the tie-break and reach round three. \u201cI was just laughing to myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually felt so relaxed when I came out afterwards. It was quite tough for the fans. There was a lot of atmosphere building and it was completely packed. It felt like everyone was on top of the court yelling. It was a shame that the match couldn\u2019t have finished there with all the atmosphere building. But I managed to come back, serve well, and tough out one rally. That was enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norrie will next face Alexander Zverev, the third seed and last year\u2019s finalist, after he advanced 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 against Alexandre M\u00fcller of France. \u201cSo excited,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the most consistent players on the tour. I think he loves playing me.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we play we have such high-level matches. He always beats me. The last maybe four or five times. We always have close sets, close matches. I played him in the fourth round here, lost 7-6 in the fifth before. But he\u2019s one of the best competitors out there. I\u2019m excited. I\u2019m feeling good. I\u2019m feeling my game good.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s draw, Coco Gauff continued to move confidently through the draw as she reached the third round with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win against Olga Danilovic. Aryna Sabalenka, the world No1, fought off a brief first-set comeback from her Chinese opponent Bai Zhuoxuan to win 6-3, 6-1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s preparations for his second-round victory at the Australian Open included a round of golf in Melbourne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-428701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}