AUSSIE Alexei Popyrin looked like a man on a mission during his second round demolition job of Spaniard Pedro Martinez. In career-best form coming off an incredible ATP 1000 title earlier in the month, the 28th seed will now set his sights on 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic for an incredible third time in a major this year.

If there was ever a time for Popyrin to take on the world number two, it might be now, having claimed wins over Andrey Rublev, Hubert Hurkacz, Grigor Dimitrov, Ben Shelton and Sebastian Korda in Montreal a couple of weeks back, and has cruised through his first two US Open matches without dropping a set and only losing 11 games in his past five sets.

Popyrin won 6-2 6-4 6-0 in an hour an 49 minutes on Court 11, winning 82 per cent of his first serve points compared to the Spaniard’s 51 per cent. The Aussie simply hit him off the court, producing 13 aces and breaking nine breaks to three across the three sets.

“It was hot. I’m just glad I got it done in straight sets – I don’t know if I would have made five sets in this heat. But who knows? I’m glad I didn’t have to find out,” Popyrin said post-match.

Popyrin was certainly looking to get through as quickly as possible, hitting a whopping 36 winners to just five, but also hitting one less unforced error in the process (25-26), never really looking in danger of losing the match. However the challenge rises significantly overnight tomorrow night and the Australian is going to do his best.

Having faced Djokovic twice in Grand Slams this year alone, Popyrin has won a set off the Serbian each time at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon. In better form than those occasions, the Aussie is gunning for an even better result.

“Honestly, [what I learned from those matches was] just that I’m able to compete with him,” Popyrin said.

“He’s the greatest of all time and one of the best players in the world right now. But I’m able to go toe-to-toe with him, and just in the important points he steps up a little bit, and I just have to expect that.”

AROUND THE COURTS

It was a good day for the local hopes with Taylor Fritz putting on a clinic against Italian Matteo Berrettini, winning a ridiculous 90 and 87 per cent of his first and second serve points, only dropping eight points on serve for the entire match. He hit 29 winners and only 18 unforced errors with seven aces to advance through to the third round alongside compatriots Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton and Brandon Nakashima.

German fourth seed Alexander Zverev and Norwegian eighth seed Casper Ruud also advanced through with Bulgarian ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov, while sixth seeded Russian Andrey Rublev came back from the brink to topple Arthur Rinderknech in five sets after trailing two sets to love. Jiri Lehecka did the same to Mitchell Krueger after being bagelled in the second set.

In other results, Lorenzo Musetti saved match points in the fifth set to shake off Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, with Argentinian Francisco Comesana coming from a set down to oust French 17th seed Ugo Humbert in three hours. Tomas Etcheverry won the all-Argentinian battle against Francisco Cerundolo in five sets, while Chinese young gun Juncheng Shang and Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor were the others to advance through to the Round of 32.