Monfils and Moutet join three fellow Frenchmen in last 32 at Australian Open

French veteran Gael Monfils and compatriot Corentin Moutet on Thursday joined countrymen Arthur Fils, Ugo Humbert and Benjamin Bonzi in the last-32 at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Monfils, 38, entered the season's first Grand Slam championships boasting a trophy from the Auckland tournament – the 13th title of his career.

And after taking five sets to dismiss his big-serving comaptriot Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round, Monfils swept past the unseeded German Daniel Altmaier 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 to reach the last-32 for the 12th time in his 18 visits to the championships.

Moutet, playing in his sixth Australian Open, reached the third round for the first time with a four-set win over Mitchell Krueger from the United States.

Moutet, 25, who twice served for the third set before winning it in a tie-break, said: "I should have played with a bit more humility in the third set when I was leading 5-2.

"I should have finished it. He came back and I could have gotten my fingers burned. I should have had a better attitude at 5-2 up."

Moutet's progress furnished French men's tennis with its best showing at the Australian Open since 2017 when Monfils, Benoît Paire, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon reached the last-16.

By contrast, the last of the five French female players was dispatched on Thursday. Varvara Gracheva, ranked 69 in the world, lost to the German Eva Lys, a player 60 places beneath her inthe women's lists.

Lys, 23, won 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

Elsewhere in the women's draw, second seed Iga Swiatek pulverized Rebecca Sramkova 6-0, 6-2 and  sixth seed Elena Rybakina was almost as brutal with a 6-0, 6-3 romp past Iva Jovic.