2013 Australian Open

[Sir David Gray]

It's hard to believe it but the new tennis season has actually started already and the first Grand Slam of the season is only 72 hours away!

The draw has been made and it's a decent draw for Andy Murray. I wouldn't be concerned about him getting to the quarter finals but things will certainly begin to get tougher from there.

He will possibly face Juan Martin Del Potro in the last eight, then Roger Federer in the semis and if he gets to the final, we may be in for a repeat of last year's US Open final against Novak Djokovic.

James Ward and Jamie Baker are fighting it out in the qualifying event for the right to appear in the main draw and both are just two wins away from achieving that. Good luck to them both!

In the women's draw, Laura Robson and Heather Watson both have decent first round draws and Johanna Konta is only two matches away from qualifying for the main draw in the women's event.

Play begins at 12am on Monday (British time). The order of play for day one will be announced some time over the weekend.

[jodjam]

Strangely enough his first round tie looks the toughest of the potential matches on the way to the qf. Haas has given him a hard game before.

Federer has a tough draw. Nole has come out of it the best and should make another oz open final with relative ease

[Sir David Gray]

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Strangely enough his first round tie looks the toughest of the potential matches on the way to the qf. Haas has given him a hard game before.

Federer has a tough draw. Nole has come out of it the best and should make another oz open final with relative ease

I think the quarter final draw will be;

Djokovic v Berdych
Ferrer v Almagro
Murray v Del Potro
Federer v Tsonga

I would say that Murray has the toughest potential match out of those four, in terms of playing against a former Grand Slam champion.

Federer does have a potentially tricky route to this stage as he could play Davydenko, Tomic and Raonic before he even gets to the last eight but he has a great record against all these players so I think he'll make it.

Personally I think that the top four seeds will all make it to the semis but there will be some cracking matches. Ferrer v Nishikori could be a cracker in the last 16.

Really looking forward to it, just a shame that most of it will be happening during the night.

[Sylar]

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It's hard to believe it but the new tennis season has actually started already and the first Grand Slam of the season is only 72 hours away!

The draw has been made and it's a decent draw for Andy Murray. I wouldn't be concerned about him getting to the quarter finals but things will certainly begin to get tougher from there.

He will possibly face Juan Martin Del Potro in the last eight, then Roger Federer in the semis and if he gets to the final, we may be in for a repeat of last year's US Open final against Novak Djokovic.

James Ward and Jamie Baker are fighting it out in the qualifying event for the right to appear in the main draw and both are just two wins away from achieving that. Good luck to them both!

In the women's draw, Laura Robson and Heather Watson both have decent first round draws and Johanna Konta is only two matches away from qualifying for the main draw in the women's event.

Play begins at 12am on Monday (British time). The order of play for day one will be announced some time over the weekend.

Every year you start this thread with the same opening - you'd think you'd be used to the timing between when the seasons finish and kick off again

It's hard to believe that the first Grand Slam of the 2012 season is almost upon us but the 2012AustralianOpen will begin on Monday from Melbourne.

It doesn't seem that long since the 2011 World Tour Finals were being played in London but all the attention turns to the other side of the world for the next two weeks.

The draw was made today and it has thrown up a potential semi final line up of;

Novak Djokovic vs Andy Murray
Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer

[Sir David Gray]

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Every year you start this thread with the same opening - you'd think you'd be used to the timing between when the seasons finish and kick off again

I'll bear that in mind for 2014!

Just wait, the opening line for that is going to be immense!

I've got a whole year to think of something too!

[Sir David Gray]

A big well done to Jamie Baker who has qualified for the main draw after coming through his three qualifying matches.

His reward is a first round draw against giantkiller Lukas Rosol, who people may remember was the man who defeated Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon last year. It will be a tough match for Baker who is ranked about 170 places below Rosol in the world rankings.

Play begins in just over 2 hours and on day one, half of the top 10 players in the world will be on court.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic will be on the Rod Laver Arena against Paul-Henri Mathieu at approximately 3am (British time).
Local hero Lleyton Hewitt, who is playing at his home Grand Slam for the 17th year in a row, takes on the 8th seed, Janko Tipsarevic in the first night match on Rod Laver Arena, which begins at 8am (British time).

There is some British interest on day one, as Heather Watson will be on about 4:30am (British time) against unseeded Romanian Alexandra Cadantu. That should be a good match for her as she's ranked more than 40 places above her opponent.

Last year's defeated women's finalist, Maria Sharapova, starts things off at midnight and the 2003 finalist Venus Williams is also in action at midnight.

Live coverage is on Eurosport throughout the two weeks and the two singles finals are being broadcast live on the BBC.

[Sir David Gray]

Novak Djokovic is safely through to round two after beating Paul Henri Mathieu in straight sets.

Heather Watson is also through after coming from behind to beat Alexandra Cadantu.

Lleyton Hewitt is currently 2 sets down to Janko Tipsarevic. It's 3-3 in the 3rd set just now.

There's good news for Andy Murray fans in the UK as he is up first against Robin Haase, meaning he will begin at midnight, which is not too bad!

[Sir David Gray]

Tipsarevic beats Hewitt 7-6 7-5 6-3. Will Hewitt be back in 2014 for his 18th consecutive Australian Open?

[jodjam]

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Novak Djokovic is safely through to round two after beating Paul Henri Mathieu in straight sets.

Heather Watson is also through after coming from behind to beat Alexandra Cadantu.

Lleyton Hewitt is currently 2 sets down to Janko Tipsarevic. It's 3-3 in the 3rd set just now.

There's good news for Andy Murray fans in the UK as he is up first against Robin Haase, meaning he will begin at midnight, which is not too bad!

Also good news for Murray. Will do him no harm at all to be first up. I always feel first ones up have an advantage if there is any bad weather which can lead to backlogs.

Hopefully the tv schedules dictate Federer has the evening draws in Murrays half of the draw.

[Hibee87]

Any one know what channel I can find the match on? cant seem to find it any where edit - I ken its not on till 12 but cant see what chanel it wil be on, will go to bed if its not

[scoopyboy]

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Any one know what channel I can find the match on? cant seem to find it any where edit - I ken its not on till 12 but cant see what chanel it wil be on, will go to bed if its not

Eurosport HD Sky Channel 410

[Hibee87]

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Eurosport HD Sky Channel 410

Cheers mate, never thought to look on there. Hope its a quick win, im up at half 6 for work.

[Sir David Gray]

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Any one know what channel I can find the match on? cant seem to find it any where edit - I ken its not on till 12 but cant see what chanel it wil be on, will go to bed if its not

Eurosport 2, which is 411 on sky.

Just starting now.

[Sir David Gray]

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Eurosport 2, which is 411 on sky.

Just starting now.

Just changed to Eurosport 1 now.

[Sir David Gray]

First set to Murray, 6-3.

Very solid start.

[Sir David Gray]

Totally in control now, 6-1 second set.

This is what a top player should be doing in the early rounds.

[Sir David Gray]

Murray wins 6-3 6-1 6-3 in just over an hour and a half.

Very solid display and he'll be delighted to get through without having to exert too much energy.

Quite disappointed in Haase though, expected a bit more from him.

[Sir David Gray]

He'll be playing Joao Sousa of Portugal in the second round.

I've never actually heard of him before so I don't expect much resistance there.

Jamie Baker and Laura Robson are playing their matches later today. Baker really shouldn't be beating Lukas Rosol but you never know. Robson should be looking to beat Melanie Oudin but it will be a tough match and she'll need to be at her best.

Good luck to them both.

[GhostofBolivar]

Robson pure battered that girl. Crushed her.

[DarrenSQH]

Great to see Andy through easily to round 2. Would be nice to see him go all the way to the later stages again.

[Sir David Gray]

Good win for Laura Robson earlier today against Melanie Oudin, in straight sets. She joins Heather Watson in round two.

Once again though, Andy Murray is the only remaining British male in round two of a Grand Slam after Jamie Baker lost in straight sets to Lukas Rosol. Baker did serve for the opening two sets but lost his nerve and lost 7-6 7-5 6-2.

Three seeds went out on day two. Thomaz Bellucci lost in straight sets to Blaz Kavcic, Alexandr Dolgopolov lost to Gael Monfils in four sets and Tommy Haas lost a five set classic against Jarkko Nieminen, 8-6 in the final set. A fourth seed, Florian Mayer, had a huge scare against the little known American Rhyne Williams but came back from two sets down to win in five sets.

Top seeds Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin Del Potro all had straightforward victories.

A mention must go to Kimiko Date Krumm, as well though. She became the oldest woman to ever win a match at the Australian Open when she beat 12th seed Nadia Petrova 6-2 6-0. At the age of 42, she replaced Virginia Wade as the oldest winner of a match at the Australian Open. However she is still a few years away from the Grand Slam record as Martina Navratilova was 47 when she won a match at Wimbledon in 2004!

[Sir David Gray]

Heather Watson is into the third round after saving match points against Ksenia Pervak. She dropped the opening set 6-4 after some disappointing errors and then trailed 6-3 in the second set tie break and only one point from defeat. But she somehow won the second set and then comfortably took the decider 6-2.

Her next match will be a different story though as she faces the 4th seed Agnieszka Radwanska. She will need to be at her absolute best if she's going to get past her.

No major shocks again on day three as Novak Djokovic had another impressive result, this time against Ryan Harrison. There were also victories for Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer.

Tomorrow sees Andy Murray return, this time against Joao Sousa. He is second on the Hisense Arena which means that he will be on at around 1:30-2am in the UK. Can't see me staying up for that one. Whilst I don't believe the result will be in any doubt, Murray will want to be on and off as quickly as possible, if the forecasted temperatures are to be believed. It's supposed to be approaching 100 degrees in early afternoon tomorrow, which is when Murray will be playing and at those temperatures, he'll be wanting to conserve as much energy as possible.

Laura Robson is also in action against former Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova. She is the second night match on Rod Laver Arena, which should mean she is on at around 10am British time.

It will be a tough match for Robson but her run at the US Open last year, when she beat Kim Clijsters and Li Na, should give her the confidence and belief that she can go out and beat players of that calibre.

A mention for Maria Sharapova though. She became the first woman to win two matches in a row at a Grand Slam without dropping a single game since Wendy Turnbull in 1985.

Quite impressive although it maybe poses some questions about the standard of women's tennis as well.

[jodjam]

Easy win for Murray. Added bonus that his expected opponent Mayer was beaten by a Lithuanian qualifier called Romanov , whoops I mean berankis. Should be an easy route to the next round.

[DaveF]

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A mention for Maria Sharapova though. She became the first woman to win two matches in a row at a Grand Slam without dropping a single game ....

My guess is her opponents just wanted to get off court ASAP due to noise pollution.

As nice looking as she is I cannot watch any of her games with the volume up.

[IWasThere2016]

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My guess is her opponents just wanted to get off court ASAP due to noise pollution.

As nice looking as she is I cannot watch any of her games with the volume up.

I do the same with Girls Aloud.

[hibsbollah]

I dont follow tennis very closely normally but this is some performance by Laura Robson against the 201 Wimbledom champion. Just taken the second set 6-3, 1 set all.

[Sir David Gray]

Laura Robson is serving for the match against Petra Kvitova.

This would be a great victory!

Come on, Laura!

[Sir David Gray]

Terrible game by Robson and Kvitova breaks straight back at 6-6.

No tiebreaks in the final set at the Australian Open so this could be on for quite a while!

[Sir David Gray]

7-7 now.

It's a big advantage for Kvitova to be serving first in this final set, every time she holds serve it puts the pressure on Robson, although if she ever drops serve then it's a big chance for Robson to hold and win the match.

[Sir David Gray]

Now 9-9!

I need to leave for my work in about 20 minutes and I really want to see the end of this!