The first Grand Slam title of the year is at stake at the Australian Open. We'll keep you up to date every day in our ticker.
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Bencic meets Gauff in the round of 16
Belinda Bencic is through to the round of 16 in Melbourne. She will face 20-year-old American Coco Gauff, who beat Leylah Fernandez in two sets on Friday.
Bencic only had to play one set in her duel against Naomi Osaka (WTA 51) from Japan. The 27-year-old won this in the John Caine Arena after 58 minutes in a tie-break. Osaka had previously led 5:2. In the course of the match, however, an old abdominal injury had apparently flared up again in the Japanese player. The 27-year-old struggled particularly towards the end of the set.
After the tie-break, the world number 51 decided to retire. Bencic, who is therefore also in action in the second week of the Australian Open tournament, showed a lot of compassion after the victory. "I'm happy, but at this moment I feel for Naomi. That's not how you want a match to end," said Bencic in the on-court interview.
The Swiss player was satisfied with her performance: "Naomi started the match better, but I tried to focus on my game. I can still improve things, but I'm happy with my performance."
![Naomi Osaka cannot finish the third round match against Belinda Bencic.]()
Naomi Osaka cannot finish the third round match against Belinda Bencic. KEYSTONE -
Live ticker: Bencic is through to the round of 16!
Belinda Bencic gets off to an excellent start in the John Caine Arena, immediately taking Naomi Osaka's (WTA 51) serve in the first game. However, the 27-year-old was unable to confirm the break and had to concede her next two service games to the Japanese player.
At 3:5, Bencic then earned another break point with a sensational return winner. The Swiss player converts it to make it 4:5 and confidently holds her own service game. 5:5, Bencic suddenly has the upper hand again - and Osaka seems to have a physical problem shortly before the end of the first set.
Has the abdominal injury from Auckland flared up again? The Japanese player undergoes medical treatment after winning her service game at 6:5.
Shortly afterwards, Bencic wins her last service game in the first set and forces a tie-break. The Japanese player continues to have problems there - Bencic on the other side remains ice-cold and realizes her first set point at 6:3.
And then comes the news: Osaka retires, Bencic is through to the round of 16!
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Alcaraz is four wins away from a career Grand Slam
Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (ATP 3) is still four wins away from winning the Australian Open for the first time.
Alcaraz advanced to the round of 16 and the second week of the tournament with a 6:2, 6:4, 6:7 (3:7), 6:2 victory over Portugal's Nuno Borges (ATP 33). This means that Alcaraz has won at least ten singles matches at every Grand Slam tournament before his 22nd birthday.
Before him, only Mats Wilander, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic achieved this in the professional era. If he triumphs in Melbourne, Alcaraz can become the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam.
A side note: Alcaraz (currently 4 Grand Slam titles), Wilander (4) and Nadal (4) all won at least four major titles before his 22nd birthday, Novak Djokovic just one. However, Djokovic was already playing superbly at the Grand Slams at a young age, but there was still no way for him to get past the older Rafael Nadal (0:4 record at majors up to the age of 22) and Roger Federer (1:3).
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Zverev concedes breaks
Alexander Zverev reaches the round of 16 in Melbourne for the sixth time. This puts him level with German icon Boris Becker. The 27-year-old progressed with a 6:3, 6:4, 6:4 win over Britain's Jacob Fearnley. Zverev (ATP 2) conceded the first two breaks of the entire tournament in this victory. However, the 2021 Olympic champion has yet to drop a set.
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07:00 a.m.
Bencic challenges Osaka
Belinda Bencic and Naomi Osaka (WTA 51) will face off in Melbourne on Friday morning. Bencic has a 3:2 lead in the head-to-head meetings against the Japanese player, even though Osaka won their last duel three years ago in Miami.
Bencic is the last remaining Swiss representative at the Australian Open. The match will take place from 07:10 in Melbourne's second-largest stadium, the John Caine Arena. It will be the first Grand Slam third-round match for both players since their baby break.
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Medvedev flips out several times - and is eliminated
Daniil Medvedev fails in the 2nd round. On his way to a sensational defeat against 19-year-old qualifier Learner Tien from the USA, the Russian went berserk several times, as he had done in his first round match. After being broken by Tien to make it 1:2 in the second set, he fires a ball into the rail. The third break to 3:4 is finally too much for Medvedev. He hurls his racket flat, but all the more forcefully into the cushion. There are boos from the crowd and a warning from chair umpire John Blom. Later, as in the game against Samrej, he hits a camera. Instead of hitting it with his stick, this time he simply kicks it over.
Tien, who wins the match 6:3, 7:6, 6:7, 1:6 and 7:6, entertains the match not only with great tennis, but also during the winner's interview after the match.
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Lys surprises everyone - and has to postpone her flight home
The German Eva Lys (WTA 128) only found out about ten minutes before her first round match that she was a lucky loser and had slipped into the main draw of the Australian Open. Now she is already in the 3rd round - and therefore has to postpone her flight home. She will be happy to do so, and with the prize money she has won, she can easily afford to postpone it.
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Sinner turns the match around after a false start
After his easy opening victory, defending champion Jannik Sinner suffered his first set loss in the tournament, but the local player Tristan Schoolkate was not a real touchstone for the world number 1. The Australian fans in the Rod Laver Arena were only able to hope for a surprise in the duel between two 23-year-olds at the very beginning. The underdog impressed on his country's biggest stage on serve and with a strong game at the net - winning the opening set was the logical consequence. However, Sinner then became increasingly dominant against the world number 173. The Australian cheers of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" only died down after 2:49 hours of play, after the big favorite was able to convert his first match point to win 4:6, 6:4, 6:1, 6:3. Sinner's next opponent in Melbourne is the American Marcos Giron (ATP 46).
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Stan conqueror Sonego beats prodigy Fonseca
The Brazilian prodigy João Fonseca (ATP 112) has to return home after the 2nd round. The 18-year-old, who convincingly eliminated Andrej Rublev (ATP 9) in three sets in the starting round, had to succumb to the Italian Lorenzo Sonego (ATP 55) in five sets 7:6 (8:6), 3:6, 1:6, 6:3, 3:6. For the winner of the Next Gen Finals and the Challenger tournament in Canberra, it was his first defeat after 13 wins in a row.
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Rune defeats Berretini
Holger Rune (ATP 13) prevailed in a close match against the Italian Matteo Berretini (ATP 34) after almost three and a half hours. The Dane proved to be more hardened than his opponent in the decisive moments, winning 7:6 (7:3), 2:6, 6:3, 7:6 (8:6). He came back from 2:5 down in the tiebreak of the final set and averted a fifth set in extremis. In the 3rd round, Rune will face Miomir Kecmanovic (ATP 51). The Serb surprisingly beat the Pole Hubert Hurkacz (ATP 17) in three sets.
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Fritz and De Minaur at express speed
Taylor Fritz (ATP 4) and Alex De Minaur (ATP 8) completed their second round matches on Thursday at express speed. The American needed less than an hour and a half to beat Chile's Cristian Garin (ATP 150) 6:2, 6:1, 6:0. The Australian was on court for just over two hours in his 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 win over the American Tristan Boyer (ATP 136). Both players are still without a set loss in Melbourne, but are likely to face more resistance in the third round. Fritz will be up against former champion Gaël Monfils (ATP 41), while De Minaur will face the Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo (ATP 31).
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Swiatek and Rybakina unchallenged
Iga Swiatek (WTA 2) and Jelena Rybakina (WTA 7) are making their way through the women's tableau. The world no. 2 from Poland beat Slovakia's Rebecca Sramkova (WTA 49) 6:0, 6:2 after 61 minutes. In the third round, they will meet Emma Raducanu. The Brit won the US Open in 2021, but never made it past the 2nd round in Melbourne until this year. Like Swiatek, Rybakina is through to the 3rd round after beating Iva Jovic 6:0, 6:3 without dropping a set. There, the Kazakh will face the Ukrainian Dajana Jastremska (WTA 33).
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Ruud fails against Mensik
Casper Ruud (ATP 6) also has to return home. The Norwegian lost to the Czech Jakub Mensik (ATP 48) 2:6, 6:3, 1:6, 4:6. The first ever duel between these two players had a surprisingly clear outcome.
Mensik, who is only 19, impressed with both his serve (22 aces) and his attacking game (62 winners). Having lost to Hubert Hurkacz in the second round last year, this time he managed to beat a player from the top 10.
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Belinda Bencic reaches the 3rd round via a detour
Belinda Bencic reaches the 3rd round at the Australian Open. In her second outing, she beat Suzan Lamens (WTA 77) from the Netherlands 6:1, 7:6 (7:3) in 102 minutes.
The 27-year-old Swiss was the first to take the fast lane in Melbourne on Wednesday. Eight women's matches were scheduled in the first stage of the fourth day of the tournament at 11 a.m. local time. Due to rain, the start of play on the (uncovered) outdoor court number 6 was delayed by three quarters of an hour. Belinda Bencic's match started after all the others. For a long time, it looked as if Bencic would be the first to progress.
But then the task became tricky. Belinda Bencic (WTA 294) was leading 6:1, 3:0 after 40 minutes. Suzan Lamens (WTA 77), who had won the tournament in Osaka in the fall, had not yet managed a service game up to this point. Then the Dutchwoman successfully began to take more risks. She found her way back into the match. She twice came back from a break behind, managed to equalize and saved herself in the tie-break despite two match points from Bencic. In this, Bencic clearly prevailed 7:3.
In the 3rd round on Friday, "Mama Belinda" cannot afford to take a time-out like she did in the second set against Lamens. The 27-year-old Swiss will face Japan's Naomi Osaka, who won four Grand Slam tournaments and topped the world rankings until four years ago, before also becoming a mother a year before Bencic.
![Belinda Bencic played for 40 minutes against Suzan Lamens, but it was still close for Bencic afterwards.]()
Belinda Bencic played for 40 minutes against Suzan Lamens, but it was still close for Bencic afterwards. sda -
Djokovic only wobbles briefly
Novak Djokovic (ATP 7) had to go through four sets against the young Portuguese player Jaime Faria (ATP 125), as he did in his opening match, but ultimately won 6:1, 6:7 (4:7), 6:3, 6:2. The second round match was his 430th Grand Slam match, which means he also surpassed the Swiss tennis icon Roger Federer in this statistic.
In the 3rd round, the ten-time Australian Open winner will face Tomas Machac (ATP 25). The direct comparison between the 37-year-old Serb and the 24-year-old Czech is 1:1. Machac last won in the semi-finals in Geneva last year.
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Alcaraz without any problems
Carlos Alcaraz, the world number 3, also won the second round match in three sets after his opening match. He beat Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka (WTA 65) 6:0, 6:1, 6:4. The 21-year-old Spaniard will play Portugal's Nuno Borges (ATP 33) in the third round.
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Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen fails in the 2nd round
Zheng Qinwen, last year's Olympic champion and finalist, is surprisingly defeated in the 2nd round by the German Laura Siegemund. These are the facts of the fourth tournament day at the Australian Open.
One year after reaching the final in Melbourne, Zheng Qinwen (WTA 5) became the first favorite to stumble at the Australian Open on Wednesday. The 22-year-old Chinese player lost 6:7 (3:7), 3:6 to the German doubles specialist Laura Siegemund (WTA 97), the oldest player in the women's singles. Zheng Qinwen regretted that she had not made the "right decisions" on the "important points".
![After reaching the final last year, Zheng Qinwen had to bow out in the second round this year]()
After reaching the final last year, Zheng Qinwen had to bow out in the second round this year sda -
Sabalenka with difficulty
Aryna Sabalenka, last year's winner and world number 1, secured her place in the 3rd round with a 6:3, 7:5 win over Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (WTA 54) from Spain. However, the Belarusian had a tough time and was trailing 2:5 in the second set before winning five games in a row.
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Stan Wawrinka fails against Lorenzo Sonego
Stan Wawrinka loses again in the first round in Melbourne: 4:6, 7:5, 5:7, 5:7 against Lorenzo Sonego. The Frenchman can no longer win at his former favorite tournament.
No question: Stan Wawrinka put in a strong performance against Lorenzo Sonego. Two months before his 40th birthday, the Frenchman even played phenomenally well at times - much better than most of last year and much better than a world number 156. During the four sets and three and a quarter hours, he only made 13 unforced errors! "That was a good match on my part. I can build on that. But it's still very disappointing that I didn't win," said Wawrinka in an interview with Swiss television.
Because in the end, what counts is what's on the scoreboard. And the scoreboard again showed that it just wasn't enough for Wawrinka. But the luck of the brave was on Lorenzo Sonego's side.
The best example of this was the rally in the eleventh game of the third set, when Wawrinka had all the advantages on his side, but in the end the Italian made the groundbreaking break with a passing shot from a full run with his back to the court. However, "Stan the Man" does not want to explain the defeat with luck or bad luck: "I had my chances in sets three and four. I didn't take them because Lorenzo (Sonego) played more courageously at those moments. He also served a little better. That's why he deserved to win. I now hope that I can start winning matches again very quickly."
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Andrei Rublev loses to the up-and-coming world champion
João Fonseca from Brazil, qualifier with a world ranking of 112, beats Andrei Rublev, the tournament's number 9, in three sets. These are the facts of the third tournament day at the Australian Open.
Andrei Rublev, undefeated at exhibitions in Saudi Arabia during the winter break, has lost eight of his last nine singles matches on the tour. Rublev lost to Fonseca 6:7 (1:7), 3:6, 6:7 (5:7). The Russian was still leading 3:1 in the third set.
João Fonseca (18) is regarded as the new Brazilian prodigy. Like Stefanos Tsitsipas (2018), Jannik Sinner (2019) and Carlos Alcaraz (2021) before him, he won the Next-Gen Masters, the world championship for under-23s, in December. He then won a Challenger tournament in Canberra. Including the three victories in qualifying for the Australian Open, Fonseca recently celebrated 14 wins in a row. In the 2nd round, he will face Lorenzo Sonego, the conqueror of Stan Wawrinka.
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Best performance for Monfils
The 38-year-old Frenchman Gaël Monfils achieved a first. In his 7:6 (9:7), 6:3, 6:7 (6:8), 6:7 (5:7), 6:4 victory over the number 30 seed Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, the Swiss Indoors winner, he did not have to fend off a single break point. This has never happened before since points scoring began (1991), when a player has not conceded a single break point to his opponent in a five-set singles match. Nevertheless, Mpetshi Perricard should have won the match: On a set point in the first set, which he subsequently lost, he missed a "penalty" (smash point) at the net.
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Van de Zandschulp with a masterstroke
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The tremble of the three-time finalist
The Russian Daniil Medvedev, three-time finalist at the Australian Open, needed five sets against the Thai Kasidit Samrej, the world number 416.
Medvedev was even 6:2, 4:6, 3:6 behind against Samrej, who made it into the main draw thanks to a wild card, before clearly winning the fourth and fifth sets (6:1, 6:2). In the third set, Medvedev destroyed the net camera in frustration over a missed volley. At the Australian Open, including his last three matches last year, Medvedev had to go through five sets for the fourth time in a row. Medvedev lost two of his three finals in Melbourne - 2022 against Rafael Nadal and 2023 against Novak Djokovic - in five sets after leading 2:0.
![Daniil Medvedev remains in contention at the Australian Open.]()
Daniil Medvedev remains in contention at the Australian Open. Picture: sda -
Rybakina loses only 2 games
Kazakh Yelena Rybakina (25), the 2022 Wimbledon winner and world No. 7, won the opening match against 16-year-old Australian Emerson Jones 6:1, 6:1. Rybakina has now won 90 sets either 6:0 or 6:1 in her professional career.
More interesting than Rybakina's victory, however, was her coaching situation. Newly signed Goran Ivanisevic, the ex-coach of Novak Djokovic, coached her. Stevano Vukov, her second coach who had been provisionally suspended by the WTA, was not present. "But," says Rybakina, "he coaches me too. We talk on the phone every day." Rybakina apparently hired Vukov, under whose wing she had won Wimbledon, behind Ivanisevic's back.
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Dimitrov gives up
Like Tsitsipas, Grigor Dimitrov (ATP 10) is also continuing a less than pleasing series. The Bulgarian had to retire from his third Grand Slam tournament in a row due to an injury. Francesco Passaro (ATP 104), who truly lives up to the term "lucky loser", had to kiss his hand. He had lost in the last round of qualifying and had only slipped into the main draw due to another withdrawal. Dimitrov was already complaining of hip pain last week and retired injured in the semi-finals in Brisbane the week before.
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Tsitsipas fails in the first round
The Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (ATP 11) lost to the up-and-coming Alex Michelsen (ATP 41) in 2:45 hours 5:7, 3:6, 6:2, 4:6. The 20-year-old American celebrated his first victory over a top 20 player at a major tournament. However, Michelsen showed nerves in the end: in the fourth set, he twice squandered a break lead with four double faults. However, Tsitsipas also handed his opponent the decisive break to make it 5:4 in the fourth set with a double fault.
Stefanos Tsitsipas lost very early at a Grand Slam tournament for the third time in a row: at Wimbledon last summer in the second round and now in Australia, as at the US Open, in the starting round.
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Viktorija Golubic's winning streak comes to an end
After 15 victories, Viktorija Golubic's winning streak at the Australian Open comes to an end. After missing two match points, the 32-year-old from Zurich loses to Elise Mertens from Belgium.
After two hours and 50 minutes, Mertens converted her second match point to win 4:6, 7:6 (10:8), 6:4. She thus maintained her astonishing streak. In the last seven years, Mertens has only failed once in the first round of all Grand Slam tournaments.
Viktorija Golubic came close to knocking the Hobart finalist (last week) out of the tournament. Golubic, who ended last season with tournament victories in Jiujiang (WTA 250) and Limoges (Challenger) and opened the new year with three wins without dropping a set in the qualifiers for Melbourne, played extremely strongly for two hours. She had match points in the tiebreak of the second set at 6:4 and 6:5.
Golubic reached the 3rd round in Melbourne for the first time a year ago. Prior to that, she had lost 13 times in the starting round at major tournaments on hard courts (Australian Open, US Open). The Swiss will drop around 13 places in the world rankings in two weeks' time.
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Novak Djokovic corrects false start
1st set: A false start for Novak Djokovic: The Serb loses the first set against 19-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy 4:6 and has to chase a deficit.
2nd set: Basavareddy also holds his own in the second set and the match remains evenly poised until 3:3. Then the clear favorite finally manages his first break - and serves the set home with a commanding 6:3. The false start is corrected.
3rd set: Djokovic gets the next break in the very first game and then defends it confidently. Without having to fend off a break point, the Serb wins the third game 6:4.
4th set: Djokovic gets his first march balls at 5:1. The 19-year-old Basavareddy fends them off. One game later, Djokovic closes out the set and secures victory.
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Alcaraz wins, Kyrgios is eliminated
Carlos Alcaraz starts the first Grand Slam tournament of the year with a commanding victory. The Spaniard was only really challenged by the Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko in the second set and won 6:1, 7:5 and 6:1 after just under two hours.
Nick Kyrgios, on the other hand, has already been eliminated. The local hero surprisingly had no chance against Britain's Jacob Fearnly and lost 6:7, 3:6 and 6:7.
