MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Highlights of the first day of the Australian Open on Sunday (all times GMT):
1212 ZVEREV THROUGH TO SECOND ROUND
French Open finalist and second seed Alexander Zverev beat wildcard Lucas Pouille 6-4 6-4 6-4 in the first round.
1150 HUMBERT BEATS GIGANTE
French 14th seed Ugo Humbert overcame Italian qualifier Matteo Gigante 7-6(5) 7-5 6-4 to reach the second round.
0929 REIGNING CHAMPION SABALENKA THRASHES STEPHENS
Top seed Aryna Sabalenka began her quest for a third straight title at Melbourne Park with a dominant 6-3 6-2 victory over 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens.
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0836 BADOSA THROUGH IN STRAIGHT SETS
Spain’s 11th seed Paula Badosa beat Wang Xinyu 6-3 7-6(5) to move into the second round. Wang fired 32 winners to Badosa’s nine but her 40 unforced errors proved to be her undoing.
0736 PLAY RESUMES ON OUTSIDE COURTS
Play on outer courts got underway again after rain suspended play for over six hours.
However, three more matches were cancelled — Damir Dzumhur v Aleksandar Vukic, Yoshihito Nishioka v Aziz Dougaz and Jaime Faria v Pavel Kotov.
0629 RUUD SURVIVES MUNAR SCARE
Norwegian sixth seed Casper Ruud advanced after a 6-3 1-6 7-5 2-6 6-1 victory over Spaniard Jaume Munar.
0620 NISHIKORI KNOCKS OUT MONTEIRO IN FIVE-SET THRILLER
Kei Nishikori, a four-times quarter-finalist at Melbourne Park, fought his way past Thiago Monteiro 4-6 6-7(4) 7-5 6-2 6-3, the Japanese 35-year-old saving two match points in the third set against the Brazilian qualifier.
0537 VEKIC MOVES PAST PARRY
Croatian 18th seed Donna Vekic, runner-up at the Paris Olympics, downed France’s Diane Parry 6-4 6-4.
0517 FIVE MATCHES ON OUTER COURTS CANCELLED
Play remains suspended on outer courts with matches not expected to resume until at least 0630.
Five matches on the outer courts — Nao Hibino v Marta Kostyuk, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Yue Yuan, Shang Juncheng v Alejandro Fokina, Tamara Zidansek v Anastasia Potapova and Jule Niemeier v Maja Chwalinska — have been cancelled.
0414 NO PLAY ON OUTSIDE COURTS BEFORE 0600 GMT
Play on outer courts at Melbourne Park is not expected to resume before 0600 GMT due to rain.
0328 FILS OVERCOMES VIRTANEN
Frenchman Arthur Fils, the 20th seed, came from a set down to beat unseeded Finn Otto Virtanen 3-6 7-6(4) 6-4 6-4.
0244 ZHENG BEATS TODONI
Chinese fifth seed Zheng Qinwen got her 2025 campaign off to a winning start as the Paris Olympics champion defeated Romanian qualifier Anca Todoni 7-6(3) 6-1.
0150 ANDREEVA STORMS PAST BOUZKOVA
Russian 14th seed Mirra Andreeva became the first player to move into the second round after the 17-year-old beat Czech Marie Bouzkova 6-3 6-3.
0100 PLAY SUSPENDED FOR RAIN ON OUTER COURTS
The first rain interruption of the championships came after less than an hour when play was suspended on the outer courts as a thunder storm swept across the Melbourne Park precinct.
Play continued under closed roofs on the four showcourts and a fixture backlog is less likely after an extra day was added to the tournament last year.
0007 PLAY UNDERWAY AT THE 113TH AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Play got underway as scheduled under cloudy skies with the temperature at Melbourne Park hovering around the 27 degrees Celsius (80F) mark. There is a shower forecast for the early afternoon.
Aryna Sabalenka gets her quest for a third straight title underway in the evening session on Rod Laver Arena before Alexander Zverev begins his latest bid for a first Grand Slam title.
SUNDAY’S ORDER OF PLAY ON MAIN SHOWCOURTS (prefix number denotes seeding)
Rod Laver Arena
(From 0030)
5-Zheng Qinwen (China) v Anca Todoni (Romania)
6-Casper Ruud (Norway) v Jaume Munar (Spain)
(From 0800)
1-Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) v Sloane Stephens (United States)
Lucas Pouille (France) v 2-Alexander Zverev (Germany)
Margaret Court Arena
(From 0030)
Otto Virtanen (Finland) v 20-Arthur Fils (France)
Diane Parry (France) v 18-Donna Vekic (Croatia)
(From 0800)
24-Jiri Lehecka (Czech Republic) v Li Tu (Australia)
Anna Blinkova (Russia) v Daria Saville (Australia)
John Cain Arena
(From 0000)
Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic) v 14-Mirra Andreeva (Russia)
Kei Nishikori (Japan) v Thiago Monteiro (Brazil)
(From 0600)
11-Paula Badosa (Spain) v Wang Xinyu (China)
14-Ugo Humbert (France) v Matteo Gigante (Italy)
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, Pearl Josephine Nazare and Chiranjit Ojha, editing by Peter Rutherford, David Goodman and Ed Osmond)
