Falla Stuns Fish; Berdych Ousts Rochus

© Getty ImagesMardy Fish makes an early exit from the Australian Open.

Colombia's Alejandro Falla recorded the first big upset in the men’s draw at the 2012 Australian Open, ousting World No. 8 Mardy Fish 7-6(4), 6-3, 7-6(6) on Wednesday afternoon in Melbourne.

Fish saved two match points down 6-4 in the tie-break, but the World No. 71 got the mini-break back and closed out the victory over the top American at the third time of asking. It marked Falla’s third career win over a Top 10 player (3-14) and his first since defeating a No. 9-ranked Tommy Haas in 2007 at Miami.

Falla's other Top 10 came win over Nikolay Davydenko in 2006 at Wimbledon. Four years later at the All England Club, he came famously close to knocking out Roger Federer in the first round, serving for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set, before the Swiss came back to win with a fifth set bagel.

"He's a good player," commented Fish, who committed 58 unforced errors. "He was up two sets to love against Roger at Wimbledon. The guy can play. I wasn't shocked that I was in that position [of down two sets], but I didn't like to be in that position. I certainly didn't play as well in the first round than today. But you're in that position and you've got to battle. You've got to fight. I tried but it didn't work out."

World No. 7 Tomas Berdych completed a 6-1, 6-0, 7-6(4) win over recent Auckland finalist Olivier Rochus in his second-round match, as he won 91 per cent of his first serve points and broke Rochus five times from eight opportunities.

Berdych, a quarter-finalist last year in Melbourne, will next play 30th-seeded South African Kevin Anderson, who advanced to the Australian Open third round for the first time with a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(3), 6-3 victory over Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Four-time champion Federer moved safely through to the third round of the Australian Open, advancing when German Andreas Beck withdrew prior to their match on Hisense Arena with a lower back injury. The 30-year-old Swiss has never lost in the second round of a Grand Slam tournament.