Dark horse Dominic Thiem is hungry for a deep run at Melbourne Park after cruising into the second week of the Australian Open with a straight-sets win over Adrian Mannarino.
The Austrian fifth seed showed no ill effects of his second-round, five-set scare against American qualifier Denis Kudla, backing up on Saturday with a 6-4 6-2 7-5 victory in two hours and eight minutes.
Winless against the two-time French Open semi-finalist in six previous meetings, Mannarino never looked like breaking his duck as Thiem broke his serve at will.
"Seven-nil - that's right," Thiem said.
"It's been some very close matches. I'm very lucky that there's still a zero.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"So I knew from the start that I'd have to play very well to beat him and I think I did it."
The Austrian has endured a horror lead-in to the Open, battling a poor run of form to end last season and a viral infection at the Doha warm-up event.
But the young gun's consistency at the majors has remained steady, with Saturday's win taking his fourth-round grand slam streak to six.
The 24-year-old is not content with stability and has big plans as he enters the second week at Melbourne Park.
"I've only gone twice further than the fourth round, so I'm a little bit tired of it," Thiem said.
Thiem set up a last-16 match-up with Stan Wawrinka's second-round hitman - Tennessee-born, tennis-loving Tennys Sandgren.
Sandgren battled past unseeded German Maximilian Marterer 5-7 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-5).
One player Thiem won't have to contend with in Melbourne is German whiz Alexander Zverev after the fourth seed suffered a third-round five-set defeat for the second year running.
Last year, it was Rafael Nadal who took Zverev out.
This year, South Korea's 2017 Next-Gen Finals champion Hyeon Chung wore him 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 2-6 6-3 6-0 to extend the Zverev's grand slam blues.
Rather than Zverev, Thiem will face either Chung or six-time champion Novak Djokovic if he beats Sandgren .
Italian Fabio Fognini ended French journeyman Julien Benneteau's final Australian Open campaign with a 3-6 6-2 6-1 4-6 6-3 loss to fiery .
Fognini, returning to the Open's fourth round for the first time in four years, will play veteran Czech Tomas Berdych, who upended Argentine 10th seed Juan Martin del Potro 6-3 6-3 6-2.
In a battle on the non-seeds, Hungarian Marton Fucsovics continued his career run with a 6-3 6-3 6-2 demolition of Argentine Nicolas Kicker.
The 25-year-old world No.80 set up a dream centre-court meeting on Monday with defending champion Roger Federer, who advanced with a 6-2 7-5 6-4 win over Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
