Daniil Medvedev is the highest ranked player in the Australian Open men's draw but he has found himself less than the most popular player at Melbourne Park.
But after a win over Dutch player Botic van de Zandschulp the Russian world No 2 wanted to work on his relationship with the Melbourne Park crowd.
Having called some of them "low IQ" against Nick Kyrgios earlier in the week, he wanted to fix the relationship with the crowd — offering some relationship advice.
"I was hoping you were going to be a bit easier on me guys," he said as some boos rang out. "I'll put it this way, it's a little easier to play a guy from the Netherlands than a guy from Australia in Australia in Melbourne.
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Advertise with NZME."I think every good relationship has its ups and down but it's good. It's entertaining, it's real. It's not like 'hi guys, okay, whatever, I'll see you next time', there is some relationship going on.
"Hopefully I can come many more years here. As I say, I don't think it'll only be good ones but I hope it'll be more good times than bad ones, otherwise it won't work."
Medvedev cruised through in straight sets against van de Zandschulp, winning 6-4, 6-4, 6-2, while fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas needed an extra set to beat mercurial Frenchman Benoit Paire, triumphing 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-4.
He will next play No 20 seed Taylor Fritz, who tipped over 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in five sets.
Maxime Cressy, a 24-year-old American, is into the fourth round at a major for the first time.
The No 70-ranked Cressy beat Australian wildcard entry Chris O'Connell 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-2 and will next play Medvedev.
No 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime had a 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 win over No 24 Dan Evans, winning 14 of the last 16 games after it was 4-4 in the first set.
- news.com.au and AP
