Australian Open 2020: Barty v Hercog, Djokovic v Ito, and more – live!

2.06am GMT02:06

Melbourne weather watch: Not quite the glorious summer day of yesterday. We’re looking at a top of 32-34C but with gusty northerly winds. Tonight could be interesting – hazardous winds, a cool change, chance of thunderstorms and rain from 10pm is the forecast. Well, we will play the Australian Open in Melbourne.

If that isn’t enough sunshine in your day, this should brighten things up. Oh Caroline, we will miss ye.

1.59am GMT01:59

So what else is on today?

In the early match on Margaret Court Arena, reigning champion Naomi Osaka was largely untroubled in seeing off China’s Saisai Zheng, 6-2 6-4. Caroline Wozniacki’s valedictory tour writes its next chapter against Dayana Yastremska (that match has just started) before the afternoon session on MCA concludes with Tommy Paul facing eighteenth seed Grigor Dimitrov.

In the early match on Rod Laver Arena, seventh seed Petra Kvitova didn’t have it her own way against Paula Badosa but did enough to emerge a 7-5 7-5 victor. Tonight, Serena Williams is in action against Tamara Zidansek, followed by Roger Federer’s second-round encounter with Filip Krajinovic. We will have both matches covered live.

And there’s plenty happening on the outside courts, the pick of which will get a mention on these pages.

But without further ado, it’s time for some Alexander Zverev love.

#AusOpen
(@AustralianOpen)

🚨Breaking news 🚨@AlexZverev has pledged to donate $10,000 for every #AO2020 match-win and if victorious, every single cent of his prize money 🙌#AusOpen | #Aces4BushfireRelief pic.twitter.com/kHdFFs3nPJ

January 21, 2020

Updated
at 2.00am GMT

1.48am GMT01:48

Preamble

Scott Heinrich

Good afternoon and welcome to day three of the Australian Open. How much do we love Ashleigh Barty? Let us count the ways:

She’s pretty good at tennis.
She had the bravery and self-awareness to ditch tennis for cricket when the former sport “became a bit of a slog for me”. The rest, as they say, is history.
Her idea of celebrating a year in which she scaled the heights of her sport was to have a few beers on the couch.
Where some players see ball girls and boys as banana-peeling fodder, she sees them as human beings and treats them as such.
She is, by all accounts known to humanity, a thoroughly good person.

Luckily for us, Barty is in action today. The world No 1 takes on Slovenian Polona Hercog, ranked 47 places beneath, in the second round on Rod Laver Arena. That match isn’t far away at all and will be followed by second seed Novak Djokovic’s clash with No 146-ranked Japanese Tatsuma Ito.

And, as ever during week one at the Happy Slam, there is plenty else on. If you’d like yo have your say, get in touch on email or tweet @scott_heinrich.

source: theguardian.com