Key occasions
It took Coco Gauff eight minutes and 5 deuces to carry serve within the opening sport of her conflict with Sofia Kenin. We could possibly be in for a protracted one on RLA.
Nice Britain’s Jodie Burrage has received the opening set 6-2 in opposition to France’s Leolia Jeanjean. The winner of that conflict will face Gauff or Kenin in spherical two.
Third seed Coco Gauff has made her entrance onto Rod Laver Area prepared for her blockbuster first spherical match in opposition to 2020 champion Sofia Kenin. Gauff received all 5 matches on the United Cup in Perth lately, with out dropping a set, persevering with her wonderful finish to 2024, that concluded with WTA Finals glory.
Gauff is in Aryna Sabalenka’s quarter of the draw establishing the prospect of a mouthwatering semi-final in direction of the tip of subsequent week.
Stefanos Tsitsipas reached the ultimate right here in 2023, and made three semi-finals within the 4 years earlier than that. His kind has nosedived since, plummeting from third on the planet to twelfth, with solely two event victories in that point.
He has the total throated assist of Melbourne’s huge Greek neighborhood out on John Cain Area this morning, however he has his work lower out in opposition to 20-year-old rising star Alex Michelsen who has vaulted from 601 on the planet to forty first in simply two years.
It’s at present on serve within the opening set.
Coco Gauff is in motion in about quarter-hour, main the cost for an rising youthful breed of US grand slam contenders.
Since her much-discussed break with coach Brad Gilbert after her disappointing US Open efficiency (dropping to fellow American Emma Navarro, who’s the eighth seed in Australia), Gauff’s file is a unprecedented 18-2 because the US Open. With new coach Matt Daly, Gauff has ironed out a lot of the problems together with her forehand and serve and is enjoying a model of extremely assured tennis. Additional, the truth that Gauff is without doubt one of the quickest gamers on tour and possesses a really robust mindset makes her considerably upset-proof within the greater occasions.
Right now’s climate forecast is rather more promising that yesterday. The temperature is within the mid-20s, it’s muggy however dry, and it ought to stay that manner for a lot of the day. Any remoted showers passing via on the light southerly breeze are unlikely to linger for lengthy.
Some fog & low cloud to start out the day throughout the south, then warming up with the prospect of afternoon showers or storms for a lot of #Vic as we speak, presumably extreme within the east. pic.twitter.com/sOOx7FQDLb
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) January 12, 2025
Probably the most fascinating story from yesterday’s play was the success of Hady Habib, the primary Lebanese tennis participant to win a match at a grand slam. Tumaini Carayol has extra:
Habib’s trailblazing success is much more important contemplating it has come at a time of battle in his nation. The previous 12 months has been a interval of unimaginable ache for a lot of Lebanese individuals because the nation continues to select up the items following Israel’s airstrikes and floor invasion of Lebanon, which have killed practically 4,000 individuals, destroyed entire cities and villages, and displaced greater than one million individuals.
With Habib’s mother and father, different household and pals nonetheless residing in Lebanon, he has spent a lot of the previous 12 months glued to his cellphone each morning as he has tried to test that his family members had been all OK. His success has offered an unlikely supply of inspiration for Lebanese individuals. “It’s an enormous win, particularly what we’ve been going via as a rustic,” he mentioned. “I believe to deliver one thing constructive, particularly, we’ve been having a tough time with the battle. We had our different points prior to now. It’s simply good to get this win for Lebanon and for the individuals.”
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Howdy everyone and welcome to stay protection of the second day’s play on the 2025 Australian Open. Motion kicked off on the skin courts of Melbourne Park at 11am sharp native time, whereas the stadium courts welcome among the sport’s greatest stars from 11.30am.
I’ll be specializing in the daytime matches for now, forward of a jam-packed night session which options Nick Kyrgios, Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka.
A number of the primary spherical singles matches we’ll be paying shut consideration to through the day session embrace:
11:00am: Stefanos Tsitsipas (11) v Alex Michelsen
11:30am: Coco Gauff (3) v Sofia Kenin
1:30pm: Iga Swiatek (2) v Katerina Siniakova
2:00pm: Jannik Sinner (1) v Nicolas Jarry
Different names to maintain an eye fixed out for embrace a stack of dwelling hopes: Ajla Tomljanovic, Jordan Thompson, Talia Gibson, James Duckworth, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Christopher O’Connell, Destanee Aiava, James McCabe, Tristan Schoolkate, and Aleksandar Vukic.
Whereas loads of different fascinating seeded gamers get their tournaments underway, together with American challengers Tommy Paul (12) and Frances Tiafoe (17), rising British contender Jack Draper (15), and former champion Victoria Azarenka (21).
There are additionally a few intriguing match-ups that includes unseeded gamers with critical CVs, particularly Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic v sixteenth seed Jelena Ostapenko, and Italian veteran Fabio Fognini v tenth seed Grigor Dimitrov.
It’s going to be a job maintaining with all of it, so be at liberty to nudge me within the route of one thing fascinating because it unfolds. The tackle is jonathan.howcroft.informal@theguardian.com for all correspondence.
Hopefully as we speak’s motion is an enchancment on yesterday’s skinny gruel. Day one patrons weren’t favoured both by the schedulers or the climate, with little of be aware occurring inside the key arenas and 6 hours of play misplaced to wild storms on the skin courts.
