Top seeds cruise through second round of Austrailian Open

Men's singles action at the Australian Open on Thursday wasn't exactly gripping.

Each of the first seven seeded men to play sailed to a second-round victory in Melbourne, Australia, and only two were forced to a fourth set.

Fifteenth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria got past South Korea's Hyeon Chung 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, while 21st-seeded David Ferrer of Spain topped American Ernesto Escobedo 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

Dimitrov is hoping to advance to the quarterfinals of a major tournament for the third time in his career. He reached the quarters in Australia in 2014, then got to the semifinals at Wimbledon that summer.

Dimitrov captured the championship of the Australian Open warm-up event at Brisbane earlier this month, the fifth singles title of his career.

Escobedo, a 20-year-old Los Angeles native, was appearing in just his second Grand Slam event. He fell in the second round of the U.S. Open last year.

Thirteenth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain wiped out Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka 6-2, 6-3, 6-3. Another Spaniard, 30th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta, took care of Great Britain's Kyle Edmund 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

France's Richard Gasquet, the No. 18 seed, barely broke a sweat in a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 rout of Argentina's Carlos Berlocq. No. 25 Gilles Simon, another Frenchman, routed Brazil's Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.

Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, the 32nd seed, got better as he went along in a 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 victory over American Donald Young.