And it’s all over on Court 2, Andrea Seppi beating Denis Kudla 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. The 28th seed will face Novak Djokovic, who beat him in straight sets in the third round of the US Open last year. Djokovic leads their head-to-head 11-0 and the closest he came to losing to the Italian was at the French Open in 2012, when he had to come back from two sets down to win 4-6, 6-7, 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. An upset seems unlikely, though Seppi will hope to take inspiration from beating Roger Federer in Melbourne last year. That’s all from me for now. We’ll be back with more live coverage tomorrow. Thanks for reading. I’m off to listen to some Wagner.
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There’s only one match to settle on day three and there’s not much life left in it now that Andrea Seppi is two sets and a break up against Denis Kudla. The “winner” faces Novak Djokovic.
The reprieve for Petra Kvitova didn’t last long. Surviving a match point and breaking in the previous game made no difference in the end, because her brief recovery was built on fragile foundations. Gavrilova soon had two more match points and although she couldn’t take the first, Kvitova eventually cracked, hitting long on the third match point! Daria Gavrilova, the 21-year-old Australian (she got her Australian passport last month), having previously represented Russia), wins 6-4, 6-4 against the sixth seed. “I was so nervous in the end,” a disbelieving, beaming, wide-eyed Gavrilova says in front of her fans. “I’m just really proud.” She’ll play France’s Kristina Mladenovic in the next round and the women’s draw is very open indeed after another seed makes an undistinguished early exit. This can only be good news for Serena Williams.
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But there’s no sympathy for a struggling opponent on Rod Laver Arena. Novak Djokovic maintains his composure and beats young Quentin Halys 6-1, 6-2, 7-6. He’ll play Dennis Kudla or Andrea Seppi in the third round.
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At 30-all, Kvitvoa slaps a forehand into the net. “Come on!” cries Gavrilova, who has match point against the sixth seed. She goes for an ace out wide - but she puts too much on it. Second serve, a short rally. A slice goes long from Gavrilova and Kvitova is spared, for now at least. It’s deuce. And the nerves are getting to Gavrilova, who hands over a break point when she nets a forehand, before slicing a backhand into the net! Kvitova sees off a match point and breaks to trail 5-4 in the second set!
Djokovic holds with the minimum fuss and he’s got himself a tie-break. Meanwhile Daria Gavrilova is serving for the match against Petra Kvitova.
I was wrong. Sack me. Halys holds for 6-5. He holds brilliantly for 6-5 and he’s got himself a tie-break at least in the third set. Could it be more? Whatever happens from here, the young Frenchman has shown enough to suggest that he will be one to watch in the future. Over to you, Novak.
Djokovic holds for 5-5. He’s going to break now, isn’t he.
Gavrilova holds to 30. She leads 5-2 in the second set. Kvitova is on the brink.
Quentin Halys is going to lose, but at least the young Frenchman isn’t making life easy for Djokovic. Some excellent tennis sees him take a 5-4 lead in the third set and it’s over to Djokovic to hold now.
Alarm bells are ringing inside Petra Kvitova’s head. The sixth seed is edging towards the exit door and she’s being pushed there by Daria Gavrilova, who has broken for a 6-4, 4-2 lead.
Djokovic or Halys will face the winner of the match between Seppi and Kudla on Court 2. Seppi has won the second set and leads 7-5, 6-4.
The comeback is off. It was on. Now it’s off. An unamused Djokovic has broken straight back in the third set against Quentin Halys, who might just end up regretting his impertinence.
A minor epic ends on Court 8, Monica Puig surviving two match points and going on to beat Krystina Pliskova 4-6, 7-6, 9-7. I believe that falls into the hard-fought category. Puig’s reward is a third-round match against Agnieszka Radwanska, the fourth seed.
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Wow. Quentin Halys breaks for a 2-0 lead in the third set against Novak Djokovic. Admittedly he’s two sets down, but still. Wow! The comeback’s on!
Having saved two match points, the steely Monica Puig breaks Krystina Pliskova for an 8-7 lead in the third set. She’s serving for a place in the third round.
There’s barely a flicker of emotion on Novak Djokovic’s face as he takes a two-set lead against Quentin Halys. The world No1 is 6-1, 6-2 up and let’s face it, he’s not losing from here.
This is outstanding from Australia’s Daria Gavrilova, who has clawed her way back from a break down against Petra Kvitova to win the first set 6-4 on Margaret Court Arena. The sixth seed and two-time Wimbledon champion is in trouble.
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Monica Puig has just saved two match points on Court 8. Krystina Pliskova is pushing hard.
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Novak Djokovic is handing out a free tennis lesson on Rod Laver Arena. A second break of serve means that he’ll serve for the second set at 5-2.
Kvitova must have thought she had wrestled control of the first set away from Gavrilova. Think again. The Australian breaks back to love and they’re back to 4-4 on Margaret Court Arena, where Gavrilova is getting plenty of backing from the home fans.
Agnieszka Radwanska is still waiting to discover her third-round opponent after beating Eugenie Bouchard in straight sets. On Court 8, Monica Puig is serving at 6-5 down in the third set against Krystina Pliskova. And on Margaret Court Arena, Petra Kvitova has just broken for a 4-3 lead against Daria Gavrilova.
With Djokovic a set and a break up, let’s turn our attention elsewhere. Andrea Seppi, who caused quite a stir by beating Roger Federer before losing from two sets up against Nick Kyrgios last year, is quietly going about his business on Court 2, taking the first set 7-5 against the USA’s Dennis Kudla.
In fact, Djokovic has made the second week of every slam since losing to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round of the French Open in 2009. That’s absurd, especially when you consider that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have both suffered a few early defeats in the majors in recent years. It’s also worth bringing up Andy Murray’s consistency. The last time he failed to make the second week of a slam was when Stan Wawrinka beat him in the third round of the US Open in 2010.
Novak Djokovic has not lost at this stage of a grand slam since Wimbledon in 2008. He lost to Marat Safin in straight sets that day and it’s all been downhill for the Serbian since then.
Serving for the set, Djokovic is broken for love and responds by announcing his retirement from tennis with immediate effect. Roger Federer and Andy Murray burst on to the court wearing party hats. Not really. Djokovic breezes away with it, winning the first set 6-1, and I don’t think he’s going to be kept here for very long at all by the game young Frenchman.
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Nothing to see here, folks. Djokovic breaks again and will serve for the first set at 5-1.
Anyway, back to the tennis, and specifically Rod Laver Arena. Quentin Halys couldn’t keep Novak Djokovic at bay for long. Resist the temptation to dream of a famous upset, because Djokovic already leads 4-1 in the first set.
Below The Line latest: accused of offensive comments towards Jews after referencing Larry David playing tennis. There is but one suitable response.
Hats off to Halys! 0-40 down in his first service game, he could have crumbled against the world No1. Most players would have folded. Instead he roars back to deuce, saves more break points, and finally holds for 1-1 after 12 minutes. Phew. He must be knackered already. He looks quite sweaty.
Continuing the French theme, Quentin Halys is in action on Rod Laver Arena. You’ve probably not heard too much about the 19-year-old, who’s ranked 187th in the world, but you’re going to hear a lot more about him if he manages to beat his opponent today, who happens to be Novak Djokovic.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a losing finalist in 2008, also marches on, defeating Omar Jasika 7-5, 6-1, 6-4. The Australian broke first in that match, but it would have been the biggest upset of the tournament so far if he had managed to knock out Tsonga, who will face compatriot Pierre-Hugues Hubert in the next round.
But Kyrgios is through, despite making a meal of it at the end of the third set. The Aussie prodigy shrugs off the loss of that break and powers through the tie-break, winning it 7-2 and the match 6-4, 7-5, 7-6, and he’ll face Tomas Berdych in the third round on Friday.
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Nick Kyrgios has let a lead slip again, just as he did in the second set. He was two sets and a break up against Paolo Cuevas, seemingly cruising towards the third round, but they’re back on serve now. Kyrgios is serving to stay in the third set at 5-4 and he probably won’t get away with these dips against Tomas Berdych in the third round.
Noah Rubin beat Benoit Paire on Monday, but the young American has met his match against another Frenchman today. He loses 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 against Pierre-Hugues Hubert.
There’s no stopping the excellent Agnieszka Radwanska, who turned it into a procession against Eugenie Bouchard in the end, fighting back from an early break to reach the third round with a 6-4, 6-2 win. From 4-2 in the first set, Radwanska only lost two more games on her way to a fine victory over an inconsistent opponent whose bright patches were blighted by too many errors at crucial moments. Bouchard can take some positives from that defeat. She played well at the start of the first set and it might have been different if she had managed to consolidate that break at 4-2, but the 21-year-old was outclassed by the fourth seed in the end, a reality reflected in the emphatic scoreline. Radwanska will face either Monica Puig or Krystina Pliskova next. Those two are still playing. Pliskova won the first set 6-4 and they’re on serve in the second set.
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As for Nick Kyrgios, the challenge now is not keep his foot on Paolo Cuevas’s throat after breaking in the third set. Although Kyrgios is seeded 29th, does he have a realistic chance of winning this tournament? We wouldn’t expect it from Andrea Seppi, the 28th seed. But Kyrgios is different, isn’t he?
Tsonga will face the winner of the match on Court 13 in the third round. Which means that it’s going to be an all-French affair, because Pierre-Hugues Hubert has just gone 6-3, 6-4 up against Noah Rubin.
No bagel for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but he does have a two-set lead to chew on instead. He’s up 7-5, 6-1 against Omar Jasika and hopes of a famous Aussie victory are fading. To think that Jasika was the first to break in the opening set. At least that’s a positive the 18-year-old can take from what should be a straight-sets defeat.
It’s Nick Kyrgios’s match to lose on Hisense Arena. He had a break, he lost the break, he got it back, he’s got the second set, he leads 6-4, 7-5 against Paolo Cuevas.
Nick Kyrgios holds for 5-5 and then he breaks for 6-5 in the second set. What’s pressure?
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An early break for Radwanska in the second set. Bouchard needs to regroup quickly.
Some harsh lessons are being dealt out to two teenagers at the moment. Omar Jasika is down 7-5, 4-0 against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, while Noah Rubin trails 6-3, 3-1 against Pierre-Hugues Hubert.
What appeared to be a simple enough task for Nick Kyrgios when he was up a set and a break against Paolo Cuevas 20 minutes ago is becoming more tricky. The Argentinian has broken back in the second set and leads 5-4. Kyrgios is serving to stay in it.
Radwanska survives that scare. Here’s a fifth set point. And she’s had enough of this game, ripping a huge forehand into the corner to take a gripping first set 6-4. Bouchard will be kicking herself. She’s lost that set from 4-2 up!
A fourth chance for Radwanska. A fourth missed opportunity – though Bouchard’s backhand pass for deuce was excellent. And now, improbably, she has a break point.
Agnieszka Radwanska earns three set points. But she lets Bouchard back into the game with a double-fault on the first and the Canadian responds by saving the next two points to force deuce.
Kristina Mladenovic is through to the third round after a 6-1, 7-6 victory over Nicole Gibbs. The 28th seed will face either Petra Kvitova or Daria Gavrilova next. And in more good news for France, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is busy extinguishing young Omar Jasika’s flame after winning an awkward first set 7-5, while Pierre-Hugues Hubert has won the first set 6-3 against Noah Rubin.
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I return from a swift toilet break – too much information? – to see Radwanska catch out an unconvincing advance from Bouchard with a cross-court backhand. The Pole has two break points and she only needs one, Bouchard drifting a forehand long. From 4-2 up, Bouchard has demonstrated why the healing process is far from over, losing three consecutive games. Radwanska leads 5-4 and will serve for the first set.
It’s all Nick Kyrgios. He now leads by a set and a break on Hisense Arena. What do we think? Can he beat Berdych?
Eugenie Bouchard is annoyed with herself. Having played so well to break for a 4-2 lead, they’re back on serve on Rod Laver Arena, Agnieszka Radwanska using all of her methodical intelligence to hit back straight away.
Last time I glanced at Margaret Court Arena, Omar Jasika was 0-40 down on his serve, seemingly on his way to being broken again. But the young Australian is enjoying himself; he’s probably not going to beat the ninth seed, but he’s determined to make it a contest. He fights back from that perilous position to frustrate Tsonga. Yet he’s 5-4 down in the first set and he’ll need to hold again here.
Nick Kyrgios is enjoying a stress-free workout on Hisense Arena at the moment. A solitary break is enough for him to win the first set 6-4 against Paolo Cuevas. The 29th seed is two sets from the third round, where he would face Tomas Berdych. We could have a couple of very tasty men’s matches on Friday, with Roger Federer versus Grigor Dimitrov already on the card.
Bouchard earns her first break point. Can she take it? Nope. She pulls a forehand long, a wasted opportunity, a big chance spurned. The game goes to deuce. But Bouchard is on top here. She gets another chance – and this time she’s ruthless. Radwanska is out of answers and the Canadian breaks for a 4-2 lead. Bouchard is playing very well indeed, much more like the gifted youngster who breezed into the Wimbledon final two years ago.
But Jasika didn’t have the lead for long. Ah, the inconsistency of youth. Tsonga has broken straight back. I suppose that’s why he’s the ninth seed.
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One to watch dept: Omar Jasika, an 18-year-old Australian, has helped himself to an early break against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Margaret Court Arena.
It’s all over on Court 8. Daniel Brands was full of optimism after taking the first set off Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, but his hopes were effectively ended by a dismal third-set tie-break. Garcia-Lopez marches on, a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6, 6-3 winner.
In the finest performance by a Jew on a tennis court since Larry David complained about Cheryl’s grunting, the young American Noah Rubin announced himself on the grand slam stage by defeating Benoit Paire on Monday. The teenager is up against another Frenchman today, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, but he’s made a slow start and finds himself a break down in the first set.
Nick Kyrgios appears to be in the mood. He’s already up a break against Paolo Cuevas on Hisense Arena.
A couple of matches have just finished. Yulia Putintseva’s run continues. She was mightily impressive in her 6-3, 6-1 victory over Xinyun Han, while Margarita Gasparyan has followed up her win over Sara Errani by beating Kurumi Nara 6-4, 6-4. Elsewhere France’s Kristina Mladenovic has won the first set 6-1 against the USA’s Nicole Gibbs.
Eager to put a dismal 2015 behind her, Eugenie Bouchard has made a decent start to the fortnight. She won her first-round match! That might not seem like much, but trust me, it’s an improvement on last year. She’s got a spring in her step as she makes her way on to Rod Laver Arena. Yet she might not be feeling so sprightly in a couple of hours, because she’s up against Agnieszka Radwanska, the fourth seed. On paper, this looks more like a quarter-final or semi-final than second-round match. Bouchard hasn’t just slipped out the top 10, her decline has been more akin to Wile E Coyote falling off a cliff, but she’s been hinting at a revival, so Radwanska will need to have her wits about her.
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The main event is approaching. Nick Kyrgios is out on Hisense Arena and he’ll be mooching around and amusing himself against Argentina’s Paolo Cuevas. He might play a bit of tennis. Might not. See how he feels at the time.
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Well that was far more straightforward than Guillermo Garcia-Lopez possibly could have anticipated at the start of the tie-break. He wins it without dropping a point and leads 4-6, 6-1, 7-6. Quite the mental collapse from Brands.
Third-set tie-break: Garcia-Lopez* 6-0 Brands (*denotes server): Garcia-Lopez overpowers Brands.
Third-set tie-break: Garcia-Lopez 5-0 Brands* (*denotes server): Poor Brands. He pulls a backhand wide and this tie-break is more or less over.
Third-set tie-break: Garcia-Lopez 4-0 Brands* (*denotes server): The Spaniard is racing away with this. The German’s game has gone to pot.
Third-set tie-break: Garcia-Lopez* 3-0 Brands (*denotes server): Brands blooters a forehand return long.
Third-set tie-break: Garcia-Lopez* 2-0 Brands (*denotes server): Brands nets a backhand return.
Third-set tie-break: Garcia-Lopez 1-0 Brands* (*denotes server): Brands stiffs a volley on a second serve. Whoops.
Garcia-Lopez passes another test. He holds again and it’s time for a tie-break. In the absence of anything else happening, let’s point-by-point it.
Garcia-Lopez holds, despite trailing 15-30 at one point. On they go.
Tension on Court 8, where Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, seeded 26th, is serving to stay in the third set against Germany’s Daniel Brands. The match is level in sets, Brands snatching the first 6-4, Garcia-Lopez hitting back in the second, winning it 6-1. Brands might have crumbled at that point. Instead the 28-year-old Germany has rediscovered his level and he leads 5-4 in the third. The pressure is on his Spanish opponent here.
Yulia Putintseva, still on a high after knocking out Caroline Wozniacki, is enjoying herself on Court 2. The unseeded Kazakh has taken the first set 6-3 against China’s Xinyun Han, while Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan is a set up against Japan’s Kurumi Nara. In a sport where height is an advantage, it’s often an uphill battle for Nara, who’s 5ft 1in.
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Grigor Dimitrov wastes one match point. He doesn’t waste a second. The Bulgarian, who has slipped to 28th in the world rankings, overcomes a stubborn challenge from Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti, winning 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to set up a third-round match with ... Roger Federer. The man they call Baby Fed against the real thing? That promises to be excellent, though Federer does lead their head-to-head record 4-0, beating the young pretender 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in Brisbane recently. That was the first time he has dropped a set against Dimitrov and this will be their first meeting in a grand slam.
The BBC has an interview with a former player who says that match fixing is an open secret on the pro tour. You can listen here.
Dimitrov had 0-30 at 5-5 on the Trungelliti serve, but the Argentinian knuckles down impressively to get it back to 40-30. Yet Dimitrov is inspired from there! Three straight points earn him the crucial break and he’ll serve for the match at 6-5 in the fourth set.
Roger Federer produced another serving masterclass in his serene triumph over the Ukraine’s Aleksandr Dolgopolov. He could face Grigor Dimitrov in round three - but the mercurial Bulgarian has to get there first. He’s currently duking it out in a fourth set with Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti. They’re at the business end of that set on Court 6. It’s still on serve and Dimitrov leads by two sets to one.
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Here’s what’s happening. Gilles Simon lets out a huge roar after coming out on top in an epic tussle with the unseeded Russian, Evgeny Donskoy, winning 6-3, 5-7, 7-6, 4-6, 7-5. It was a struggle for the world No15, but he’s clambered into the third round after biding his time, keeping his cool and breaking to love in the final game of the deciding set. Allez!
Preamble
Hello. Who’s ready for some hot tennis action from the Australian Open? Well get with the programme, because there’s already been hours of hot tennis action from the Australian Open. If you’ve been asleep, you’ll have missed the big guns in the men’s draw, Roger Federer, Tomas Berdych, Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic going through, while two hopefuls, David Goffin and Dominic Thiem, are also into round three.
In the women’s draw, there were no problems for Serena Williams, who beat Su-Wei Hsieh, for the loss of a mere three games. Maria Sharapova was similarly ruthless against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, Belinda Bencic had no trouble against Timea Babos, conqueror of Heather Watson, Carla Suarez Navarro recovered from losing the first set against Maria Sakkari to win in three, US Open finalist Roberta Vinci downed Irina “Carmine” Falconi, but Svetlana Kuznetsova is out, defeated by Kateryna Bondarenko.
Not much in the way of drama, then. But fear not, there’s plenty still to come, with Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios in action later. But what’s happening at the moment, I hear you ask?
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