Key matches
Here is a look at today’s key matches:
Blinkova and you didn’t miss it … a 31-minute tie-breaker
When it was finally over, Anna Blinkova fell to her knees and seemed to almost start to cry. And fair enough – she had just won arguably the match of the tournament so far, culminating in the longest tie-breaker in women’s grand slam singles history.
Not only that, she had knocked out world No. 3 Elena Rybakina, last year’s Australian Open runner-up and a one-time Wimbledon champion, to notch up the biggest win of her career and advance to the third round of a major for the third time.
Anna Blinkova after the match.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Medvedev’s great escape stretches into morning
If he wasn’t on the court competing, Daniil Medvedev doubted anything would have kept him at Rod Laver Arena until almost 4am.
The third-seeded Medvedev lost the first two sets of his second-round Australian Open match against No.53-ranked Emil Ruusuvuori before coming back to win 3-6, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-0 in four hours, 23 minutes in the latest finish of the week.
This match, one of many long ones on a day disrupted by rain, is sure to fire up the debate about late finishes, which led to Tennis Australia’s decision to start the Open a day early this year. Read the match report here.
Team Demon leads Aussie’s Open charge
Alex de Minaur is the only Australian man left standing as the Open reaches the third round.
Tennis is an individual sport, but it takes a team to make a star nonetheless, led by his coach Adolfo Gutierrez, whom de Minaur calls his “second father”.
Marc McGowan takes a behind-the-scenes look at the team that has helped propel the Demon to world’s No. 10.
Read the story here.
Alex de Minaur and his team.
Key matches
Here is a look at today’s key matches:
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of day 6 of the Australian Open.
Many tennis fans are waking up bleary-eyed after some marathon matches that stretched into the early morning, but they’re in for a treat again today, with a feast of big names back on court.
Alex de Minaur and Storm Hunter are carrying the hopes of the nation as they do battle with Italian Flavio Coboli and Czech superstar Barbora Krejcikova respectively.
And world No. 1 Novak Djokovic is back in action this evening against Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina.
I’m Scott Spits and I’ll bring you all the action from Melbourne Park and beyond. Let’s get into it.
