Alexander Zverev has taken another step towards shedding his tag as tennis’s biggest grand slam flop with a convincing second-round win at the Australian Open.

The German seventh seed has marched into the last 32 without dropping a set following his 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 7-5 victory over Egor Gerasimov on Thursday.

Yet to reach the quarter-finals of a hardcourt or grasscourt major despite climbing to as high as No.3 in the world and winning the 2018 season-ending championship, Zverev arrived in Melbourne low on confidence and down on form.

He lost all three of his matches at the ATP Cup to Alex de Minaur, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Denis Shapovalov as Germany bombed out in the pool stages.

But the 22-year-old appears to be finding his groove on Melbourne Park’s faster surface, Zverev needing little more than two hours to see off Gerasimov.

His only hiccup came when he dropped serve trying to close out the match at 5-3 in the third set, before he regrouped to break the Belarusian for a third time to book a third-round date on Saturday with Fernando Verdasco or Nikoloz Basilashvili.

Fourth-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev earlier breezed into the third round with a straight-sets win over qualifier Pedro Martinez.

One of the title fancies at Melbourne Park, Medvedev overpowered the Spaniard 7-5 6-1 6-3 in two hours and nine minutes.

He banged down an impressive 19 aces for the match, had 40 winners and broke his opponent six times but wasn’t entirely happy with the performance.

“Still, the first set I wasn’t always happy with my first serve,” the 2019 US Open finalist said.

“But we are tennis players, we always want more.”

His win opened the door for a next-up clash with Australian Alexei Popyrin, who was two sets up against Spaniard Jaume Munar.

The pair have similar styles as well as Russian lineage, Popyrin still rising up the ranks at No.96 in the world but with a big serve and forehand and impressive movement for his height.