2023 Australian Open ICYMI: Day 2
WEATHER at both ends of the spectrum gave players a taste of the ‘four seasons in one day’ for Melbourne, with scorching heat, followed by rain forced delays and suspended contests. Here is a quick look at what did go down on day two. THE GOOD: Epic tennis. There were some absolute thrillers on both […]
2023 Australian Open preview: Men’s Singles
MONDAY marks the start of Australia’s most prestigious tennis tournament, with the Australian Open kicking off at Melbourne Park. The first round contains 128 players – including 32 qualifiers – 64 of whom will take to the courts on the opening day. We take a look at the Australian Open men’s singles field, and how […]
The story behind wildcard Rinky Hijikata
RISING Aussie tennis star Rinky Hijikata was in Sydney when he received a phone call from his coach Mark Draper in mid-December. Draper, the brother of 2005 Australian Open mixed doubles winner, Scott, was calling to inform the 21-year-old that he had received a wildcard into the Australian Open main draw. “(He said it’s) time […]
Popyrin gains vital match practice in Fritz loss
AUSSIE Alexei Popyrin had some additional match practice in against world number nine Taylor Fritz at the Kooyong Classic on Thursday. The 6-7 1-6 loss to the American is his seventh match of 2022, after he qualified and reached the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International last week before going down in a close bout against […]
Tiafoe confident ahead of AO as Kooyong crowd treated to entertaining spectacle
WORLD number 17 Frances Tiafoe is bullish on his chances at next week’s Australian Open. There is saying you want to win a major, and there is confidently declaring it. Tiafoe has set that as a realistic goal ahead of this year’s first Grand Slam tournament. The American enters the Australian Open off the back of […]
Aussies de Minaur, Hijikata get wins ahead of Australian Open
TOP-RANKED Australian male Alex de Minaur has carried his strong form from the United Cup to Melbourne, defeating Dominic Thiem 6-4 6-4 in the Kooyong Classic opener on Tuesday. De Minaur has repeatedly spoken about his love for playing in front of his home crowd and representing his country, and, donning the green and gold, […]
Demon delight, rules over Rafa
FOR the first time in his ATP Tour career, Australian Alex de Minaur got the better of 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal to help the green and gold remain in contention to win a United Cup match. Though both Australia and Spain lost to Great Britain – and therefore could not advance to the […]
Sweet start for Swiss at United Cup
SWITZERLAND is in the box seat of its opening round United Cup tie against Kazakhstan following day one of action after wins to Belinda Bencic and Marc-Andrea Huesler. The world number 12 Bencic fought back from a 1-4 deficit in the opening set against Yulia Putintseva to grind out a tiebreak victory – to love […]
2022 United Cup preview: Group D
GROUP D continues our 2022 United Cup preview series leading up the brand new event taking place across three Australian cities. Group A and Group F are in Perth, with Group B and Group E in Brisbane, and Group C and Group D are in Sydney. There are 18 teams battling it out for ultimate […]
Canadians crush Aussies en route to Davis Cup title
CANADA ended Australia’s Davis Cup dream overnight in Malaga, with Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime winning their respective singles and ensuring the North American nation came away with the title. Auger-Aliassime had been in scintillating form, and while he was coming up an equally impressive Alex de Minaur, he had a few too many weapons. […]
