Australian Open 2025 LIVE updates: Tomljanovic, Thompson lead Aussies on day four; Sabalenka, Gauff, Djokovic, Alcaraz in action

The roof is now open on John Cain Arena, which is a great sign for our chances of some play on the outdoor courts soon.

Zheng Qinwen and Laura Siegemund are moments away from starting their match.

While it is still cloudy around Melbourne Park, the Bureau of Meteorology radar appears to show that the rain has cleared for now, although we could still get some rain later on.

No.5 seed Zheng Qinwen and Germany’s Laura Siegemund are about to take the court at John Cain Arena.

The roof is closed and this match is set for an 11am start.

Still no update on when the outdoor courts will start. At this stage there will be no play before 11.30am.

The players are walking out to the court now.

A tennis ball launched at 230 km/h against your wrist isn’t a pleasant experience. Just ask Ben Shelton, who bore the brunt of Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s monster serve at last year’s Swiss Indoor finals in Basel.

But Shelton, who kicked off his Australian Open campaign against fellow countryman Brandon Nakashima on Tuesday, could at least be thankful he wasn’t facing Sam Groth.

In 2012, the Australian launched the fastest serve in recorded history during the Busan Open: a bomb clocked at 263.4 km/h.

But how do the serves of Perricard and Groth compare with the speeds of other sporting projectiles? Fast as it was, Groth’s record-breaking tennis shot pales when measured against another racquet sport.

We look at some of the fastest balls ever struck.

Click here to read the story.

The Australian Open have just announced that there will be no play on the outdoor courts before 11.30am.

The rain is pretty minimal but they are still drying the courts.

Play on John Cain Arena will start at 11am and then on Rod Laver Arena and Margaret Court Arena at 11.30am as scheduled.

Lorenzo Musetti’s man bun is a thing of the past.

The Italian tennis player showed up at the Australian Open with his famously lengthy locks sheared, and he wound up winning his first-round match on Tuesday by, um, a hair.

The 16th-seeded Musetti, a Wimbledon semi-finalist last July and Paris Olympics bronze medallist last August, needed four hours and six minutes to get past countryman Matteo Arnaldi 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

Gone were the strands that dangled nearly to his shoulders under a backward white hat at the All England Club and, as recently as late November, at the Davis Cup Finals, which Italy won.

Gone was the top knot the 22-year-old Musetti featured at the Paris Games.

“For now, the short hair had a good start in Australia. Let’s hope it can bring me luck,” Musetti said.

“It’s a new look. But if I hadn’t had such long hair for such a long time, people wouldn’t even have noticed it.”

Perhaps. But a glance at social media made clear that fans definitely made note of this new ’do.

He said this is the closest his hair’s been cropped since he was 15.

Even when he won the Australian Open junior boys’ title at age 16, it was a little longer.

“I’m getting old,” Musetti said with a smile, “so I am trying to look younger.”

AP

Fans of Australian tennis stars are in for a treat on day four of the Open.

The round-two Aussie action starts in the afternoon, when world No. 27 Jordan Thompson takes on Nuno Borges of Portugal on John Cain Arena.

On court 3, James Duckworth will do battle with Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain.

Aleksandar Vukic’s match against US star Sebastian Korda is the third scheduled on Kia Arena.

All eyes will be on the night clashes when the action heats up.

Headlining the Aussie contingent tonight is Ajla Tomljanovic, who has staged a powerful return to the Open.

She takes on world No. 12 Diana Schnaider of Russia on John Cain Arena.

Immediately afterwards on the “people’s court”, Thanasi Kokkinakis will do battle with world No. 15 Jack Draper. Let’s hope Kokkinakis has been able to overcome injury woes that threatened to derail his brave first-round fight.

At the same time, wildcard Talia Gibson has a tough ask on Margaret Court Arena as she faces world No. 12 Paula Badosa of Spain.

And that’s just the beginning. Doubles action starts today, and we’ll bring you the news of Aussie players – and other stars, of course – competing.

A teenager versus the ninth seed in the first round?

We all know how the script should go on this one.

But 18-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca launched his grand career in spectacular fashion last night, as the qualifier took down Russian Andrey Rublev 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

Fonseca became the last player to book a second-round spot, but the wait was well worth it as he lived up to the hype.

He looked completely at home on his grand slam main draw debut, having waltzed through the qualifying draw without dropping a set. All those who stayed late on Margaret Court Arena will not forget him in a hurry.

One almost felt a little sorry for Rublev, who became Fonseca’s first victim at a major.

The Russian, well-known for chastising himself on court, often painfully, could do little to stem the flow of brilliance across the net.

The Brazilians in the crowd loved it and so did the neutrals as a new star of the men’s game illuminated the night. Fonseca is only the second teenager since 1973 to defeat an ATP top 10 player in their maiden grand slam main draw match.

“I mean, not bad, I just enjoyed every moment playing in an amazing court in a huge stadium for the first time,” Fonseca, who last year won the Next Gen ATP title, said on court.

There was a swagger about Fonseca as he used the energy of the crowd to surge further in front of Rublev, who reached the quarter-finals here last year.

Fonseca, ranked 112 but surely heading much, much higher in a hurry, will face Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego next.

Reuters