Venus rises, Thiem limps out

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams made a late charge into the Australian Open third round Thursday, grinding out a win in her second three-set victory of the tournament.

The unseeded 38-year-old American came back strongly to beat Alize Cornet of France 6-3, 4-6, 6-0, setting up a meeting with top seed Simona Halep.

Williams, who played her first Australian Open in 1998, said she drew energy from the Melbourne Park crowd in the deciding set against world number 36 Cornet.

"The first two sets were so tough and in the second I felt I was controlling the points but just falling a little bit short," she said.

"So I tried to do the same (in the third set) and not fall a little bit short. It worked out."

The veteran has reached the final at Melbourne Park twice, most recently in 2017 when she lost to sister Serena.

The siblings could meet again in the quarter-finals if results go their way.

In men’s third-round singles, seventh seed Dominic Thiem limped out of the Australian Open in the second round Thursday when he retired after going down 7-5, 6-4, 2-0 to young wildcard Alexei Popyrin.

The Austrian got through a first round five-setter against Benoit Paire that finished in the early hours of Wednesday morning and he never looked 100 percent against the Australian.

Thiem smashed his racquet at one point and called for the trainer before retiring to hand Popyrin, 19, the biggest win of his fledgling career.

"It's never easy winning like this, Dom played a tough first round. It's never easy winning like this," said the teenager.

But he added: "I always thought I was in the match, to be honest."

Popyrin will meet either 28th seed Lucas Pouille or Maximillian Marterer in the third round.