Australian Open 2025: Alcaraz and Zverev in action; Sabalenka labours on day six – live

Carlos Alcaraz (3) has just walked on to Rod Laver Arena for his clash with Nuno Borges. That will be the focus of my attention for the next few hours, but while they’re warming up, let’s whip around the courts.

Diana Shnaider (12) and Donna Vekic (16) are locked one-set all and on serve in the third on Margaret Court Arena.

Paula Badosa (11) is one set up over Marta Kostyuk (17) but the Ukrainian is on the cusp of winning the second set, leading 5-1, but just failing to serve out a bagel.

And Tommy Paul (12) v Roberto Carballes Baena is heading for an opening set tiebreak.

Aryna Sabalenka defeats Clara Tauson 7-6 (7-5) 6-4

This match is cray cray, Sabalenka has the chance to serve for it at 5-4 up and then immediately tightens up, her groundstrokes freezing and her serve losing its zip as she shonks to 15-40. Then, all of a sudden she finds her game again, roaring back and bringing up MATCH POINT…

All credit to Clara Tauson who just refuses to go away, she’s making Sabalenka work for her victory, some scorching groundstrokes see the Dane carve out a break point at 3-4 down. Tauson needs this to level things up. She has a second serve to have a swing at too… Sabalenka sends down a nervy looking serve and there it is! Tauson breaks with a pulverising winner to level the second set 4-4!

There’s a third Ashes ODI on right now by the way. Rob Smyth is on the tools for that one, Ash Gardner has chalked up a maiden international ton and England’s quest for the urn is looking increasingly doomed.

Simon Cambers is also following the action in Melbourne, this is very good on the ancient-in-tennis-years – 28 year old Sydney born Aleksandar Vukic:

Unless your name is Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz or Rafael Nadal, breaking through on the tennis circuit demands patience. At the start of the Australian Open, the average age of the men’s top 100 players was 26.6, with 19 players aged 30 years or older. Getting in there is far from easy.

Aleksandar Vukic knows all about taking time. The Sydney-born Vukic broke into the world’s top 100 in 2023 but at the age of 28 he had still only won three matches at grand slam level before this week. After beating the No 22 seed, Sebastian Korda, in the second round at Melbourne Park, he’s through to a clash against Britain’s Jack Draper, a major step forward in Vukic’s career, not to mention a guaranteed AU$290,000 and by far his biggest pay cheque

Vukic is the oldest Australian man to reach the third round of a grand slam for the first time since Wayne Arthurs in 2001. Once a contemporary of Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis, Vukic fell behind his peers and decided to go to Spain to train, only to find the strict regime of “five to six hours of tennis” too monotonous as he soon felt burnt out. Instead, he went to college in the United States and enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he found life altogether more fun, while still training hard.

Sabalenka in command against Tauson in the second set.

That first set was truly mad, the defending champ looks unbeatable most of the time but her aura definitely looked diminished in the first hour of play. A mixture of a hard hitting opponent and way too many unforced errors. She’ll be very pleased to get off the court in two with no (further) alarms and no surprises. She’ll take the quiet life, a handshake… with her opponent and the umpire.

I’ve just enjoyed reading this by Tumaini on the intertwining paths of British pair *Draper and Fearnley:

They first met when they were about 10 years old and their first battle came under an inflatable indoor bubble on the green clay courts of the Gosling Sports Park in Welwyn Garden City, just as they were making the transition from the softer junior balls to fully pressurised yellow balls.

As two of the outstanding players of their age groups in Britain, Draper and Fearnley spent much of their time between the ages of 10 and 14 tussling in singles before joining forces in doubles and team competitions around the world, iron constantly sharpening iron. “We played each other all the time,” says Draper. “We travelled under-12s, we won the Winter Cup under-12s and we must have played each other 30-, 50-plus times. And he’d get the better of me a lot and then I’d get him sometimes. It was a really healthy dynamic we had back then. And we were travelling, we were young, good friends.”

*

Elsewhere, US duo Krajicek and Ram have prospered 6-1, 6-4 over Ebden and Vliegen in just 1 hour 8 mins.

Have a look at this…

I knew this was going to be a cracker. Diana Shnaider and Donna Vekic are absolutely marmalising and mesmerising over on Margaret Court! The Croatian and 18th seed Vekic snuck the first set 7-6(*7-4) in the tie break but 12th seed Shnaider has the break at 3-1 in the second.

Pavlyuchenkova defeats Siegemund 6-1, 6-2

Sabalenka takes the first set! 7-6 (*7-5)

Tie break thriller! The tennis has gone up about eight notches in quality! It doesn’t happen often but Sabalenka is genuinely being matched for pace and power by Tauson. After the defending champ whistles to a 4-1 lead the Dane roars back with some earth-scorching ground strokes of her own and somehow they are now at 5-5!

Tauson shonks a forehand off the frame and it flies very wide of the tramline. She’s 5-6 and 30-30, she shows some anger for for the first time, both players have not been anywhere near their best yet. What a truly weird set of tennis!

Finally! A really high quality rally sees Sabalenka hunt down a well executed drop shot only for Tauson to whip a winner past her to take the game to deuce. The Dane smashes a nervy overhead and saves a set point before unfurling a beautiful forehand and swatting a drive volley to get advantage. Sabalenka backhands into the net and after seven minutes the game is wrestled back by Tauson, they are going to a tie break after all that!

Sabalenka pummels the baseline and puts the pressure on Tauson, the Dane goes from being two points away from winning the first set to being broken back in the blink of an eye. Sabalenka lets out a guttural roar, is that the moment this match changes?

Sabalenka didn’t drop a single set on her run to the title last year and all of a sudden she yanks this topsy-turvy set from her opponent’s clutches. The break is consolidated with a warp speed service game that sees Sabalenka get her nose in front for the first time in the match.

Tauson breaks Sabalenka for the fourth time (yikes) to go 5-3 up on Rod Laver. The defending champion very much in danger of dumping this first set in pretty miserable style. Are we seeing the beginnings of a major shock at the start of day six?!

The American doubles pairing of Krajicek and Ram have bagged the first set against the Aussie/Belgian pairing of Ebden and Vliegen imaginatively named Kia Arena.

Krajicek was the number one ranked doubles player in 2023 and the 34 year old is indeed a distant cousin of the Flying Dutchman from the 90s. One of my earliest tennis memories is of watching Richard Krajicek beat Mal Washington to win the 1996 Wimbledon title. I was mesmerised in my parents attic, watching on a dilapidated old Grundig television that one had to blu tac the straggly aerial in all sorts of contorted positions in order to get a signal. Happy times. Every game at the swipe of a screen? Kids these days don’t know they are born… I mean they’ll never get on the property ladder or get a pension, but still. That’s for another blog.

Nostalgia is such a cheap thrill, eh?

Over at the John Cain arena, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is not having any trouble holding serve, the 27th seed has just snaffled the first set against Germany’s Lara Siegemund with an 88 per cent first serve percentage.

Oh gawd. That’s four breaks in a row between Tauson and Sabalenka! Both players guilty of running hot and very cold, unforced errors aplenty in what has been a low quality start. 2-2 in the first set.

What’s your take on all this then? Spicy.

Guess what? Another break of serve! Tauson crunches a backhand winner at 30-30 to carve out another early break point… Sabalenka’s forehand is not firing as of yet, another bunt long sees the game handed to the Dane, 2-1 to Tauson!

There’s been some to-ing and fro-ing on serve over on Margaret Court too as Diana Schnaider went 2-0 up against Donna Vekic only to be broken back just now after a nervy looking double-fault into the net.

Can everyone stop getting… broken?

Tauson’s first serve is penetrative but her second sometimes lacks a bit of juice. Sabalenka slams a forehand winner and then benefits from a high ball flying into the sun that Tauson loses sight of momentarily, her overhead backhand hitting the net to gift break points right back. There’s some meaty strokeplay from both players and Sabalenka locates her radar, hitting the baseline with a winner to take the game. A break back and one game apiece. Already looks like it should be a good tussle.

Sabalenka is serving first and is immediately put under pressure by her opponent after unforced errors on both backhand and forehand sides. Tauson doesn’t even have to do much to be honest, so shonky is Sabalenka’s radar early doors… 15-40 and then BREAK. Just like that, Tauson takes the first game and will now have her first service game to consolidate.

Sabalenka and Tauson begin their knock up in bright sunshine as the crowds spill into Rod Laver arena. Defending champion Sabalenka, dressed in Aussie yellow, strode onto the court with her headphones on and looked full of confidence, as well she might. Her opponent is the big serving Dane Clara Tauson, she has the most aces in the draw so far and stands an inch taller than Sabalenka. The stattos are only giving her a 9 per cent chance of victory but that seems a little low from what I’ve seen of her, If she gets into her groove then she can be very dangerous.

Righto, it looks like it is a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way in Melbourne. Let’s have some play, shall we?

Order of Play on Margaret Court

Order of Play on Rod Laver

Tien Time:

Catch up on all the happenings from yesterday in Melbourne:

On the day of a new attendance record at Melbourne Park, the world No 11, Danielle Collins, was booed and jeered in her win over local hope Destanee Aiava, the latest intervention at the Australian Open from boisterous and often intoxicated crowds in a sport known for its civility.

The treatment appeared to affect the American, who shouted “shut up” to one fan during her tense 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-2 victory, even blowing kisses to the stands and turning and slapping her bottom in post-match victory taunts.

Afterwards she was one of a chorus of players who called for the volume to be turned not down but up. The endorsement comes as officials at the Australian Open try to attract non-traditional audiences to the sport, and players such as the “Special Ks” doubles pairing of Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis encourage engagement from a new generation of tennis fans.

“I love playing in a crowd that has energy, regardless of what side they’re on,” Collins said after her victory. “It just motivates me even more, so it’s kind of a good thing, especially when I’m not playing that well.”

Preamble

James Wallace