Another day of the Australian Open is complete. There were some first round matches which needed to be completed today due to the weather yesterday. The day did not start off great with rain but it cleared up and all matches which were scheduled to be played were played.

Today I will start with the ladies draw. Day 3 saw Swiatek, Pegula, Krejcikova, Keys, Rybakina and Azarenka all win their respective matches in straight sets and book their respective spots in round 3. Out of the 1st round matches which needed to be played today, Begu had to come back from a set down to book her spot in the 2nd round. Stefanini did the same as Begu as she defeated Maria in 3 sets. Linette navigated safely past Sherif. Zhang battled hard to defeat Tig in 3 sets. Parrizas-Diaz knocked out 14th seed Haddad Maia in straight sets. The Brazilian still having a poor record in grand slams. Gracheva knocked out fellow countryman Kasatkina in straight sets. She amazingly just dropped 2 games in the win of Kasatkina. Kalinina produced on upset as she knocked out 15th seed Kvitova in straight sets. Sakkari the 6th seed battled from a set down to get the better of Shnaider in 3 sets. Zhu from China knocked out 32nd seed Teichmann in straight sets, just dropping 4 games. Bucsa defeated Andreescu in 3 sets. Bucsa winning the 2nd set tiebreak 9-7 before taking the 3rd set 6-4. An impressive match on paper proved to be an impressive match in reality as Gauff played against Raducanu. Gauff played well to take the 1st set 6-3 and was leading by a break in the 2nd set before Raducanu broke back to make it 4-4. Raducanu then went on to win her service game and give herself some set points at 5-4 but Gauff fended those off and held to make it 5-5. The set eventually needed to be decided in a tiebreak. Gauff making very little errors which meant she took the tiebreak comfortably 7-4 and booked her spot in the 3rd round. Collins the 13th seed was up against unseeded Muchova. Muchova managed to take the 1st set in a tiebreak but couldn’t keep the momentum as Collins hit back, taking the 2nd set 6-2. The match ended up going to a 3rd set super-tiebreak. Collins thought she had one it but forgot it was a ten point tiebreak and not a 7 point tiebreak. Collins managed to laugh it off and take the tiebreak 10-6 and survive to play the 3rd round. Pera knocked out 29th seed Zheng in an impressive straight set victory.

Onto the mens side of the draw where the big story of the day was the number 1 seed and defending champion, Nadal, was knocked out as McDonald defeated him in straight sets. Sinner, Tiafoe, Medvedev, Nishioka, Shapovalov, Tsitsipas and Korda all won their respective matches in straight sets. Auger-Aliassime survived a scare as he found himself 2 sets to love down before making an impressive comeback to take the match against unseeded Molcan. Fucsovics beat Harris in 4 sets and will face Medvedev in the next round while Khachanov survived Kubler as he also won in 4 sets. Hurkacz had to battle back from 2 sets to 1 down to defeat a dangerous Sonego. Griekspoor knocked out fellow Dutchman van de Zandschulp in straight sets and last but not least Norrie won his match in 4 sets over unseeded Lestienne.

Onto the leaderboard and ‘Live once Serve Twice’ held onto their lead. ‘Wizards’ move back into the top 5 and into 2nd spot just 5 points off the leader. ‘Down Under’ sit in 3rd with ‘Drop Shots’ just 1 point behind in 4th. ‘Groundstroke’ sit in the last prize position in 5th spot.

Matches to watch on day 3

• Chardy vs Evans(25) (02:00)
• Davidovich Fokina(30) vs Paul (02:00)
• Brooksby vs Ruud(2) (03:30)
• Rublev(5) vs Ruusuvuori (04:00)
• Schwartzman(23) vs Wolf (04:00)
• Fritz(8) vs Popyrin (06:00)
• Dimitrov(27) vs Djere (07:15)
• Cressy vs Rune(9) (07:15)
• Mannarino vs De Minaur(22) (10:00)
• Murray vs Kokkinakis (11:15)

• Sabalenka(5) vs Rogers (02:00)
• Townsend vs Alexandrova(19) (02:00)
• Kontaveit(16) vs Linette (04:00)
• Fernandez vs Garcia(4) (05:30)
• Vekic vs Samsonova(18) (06:00)
• Zhang(23) vs Martic (06:00)
• Putinseva vs Pliskova(30) (06:00)
• Vondrousova vs Jabeur(2) (12:00)

Jared

Jared matriculated in 2020 from Wynberg Boys High School in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. His passion for tennis afforded him the opportunity of travelling to Europe. He is a quizmaster and a tennis fantasy league organiser.http://Eishonline.co.za/jftl