Aussies on the march into the third round

AUSTRALIA has five players in the third round at Wimbledon for only the second time in 20 years.

Nick Kyrgios, teenage ace Alex de Minaur, in-form Matt Ebden and seeded women’s stars Ashleigh Barty and Daria Gavrilova are through after a banner day for Australia.

Kyrgios’s decision to skip the French Open is now proving a wise one, with Australia’s leading Wimbledon title hope powering into the third round without dropping a set.

The 15th seed took his tournament ace tally soaring past the half-century mark with another 19 untouchable deliveries in 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 dismissal of Dutchman Robin Haase.

Barty and Gavrilova are also enjoying watershed Wimbledon campaigns.

Barty’s 6-4 7-5 win over 2014 runner-up Eugenie Bouchard advanced the 17th seed to a third-round meeting with Russian 14th seed Daria Kasatkina.

Gavrilova plays unseeded Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich next after ending Gold Coast star Samantha Stosur’s tournament with a dominant 6-4, 6-1 victory.

Australia also had five players in the third round in 2015 – Kyrgios, Tomic, Sam Groth, Stosur and Casey Dellacqua.

But this is only the second time since Pat Rafter, Mark Philippoussis, Mark Woodforde, Jason Stoltenberg and Todd Woodbridge all made it this far in 1998 that Australia has been so well represented in the last 32 at Wimbledon.

Arina Rodionova was Australia’s only first-round singles winner last year.