Live updates from all the action at Melbourne Park
Dramatic day two marred by retirements | Email Katy
It’s a dark, damp and dreary morning in London, and I’m scrambling around in a flu-induced fog, so turning on the TV to see the bright blue courts and evening sunshine at Melbourne Park has got me quietly singing Oasis’s Half the World Away to myself while wishing I could be teleported there ASAP. Or come back as a professional tennis player in my next life. Or persuade the powers that be that this humble live blogger deserves a trip to Melbourne next year.
Already today there have been first-round wins for the defending champion Madison Keys, the 2023 runner-up Elena Rybakina, last year’s semi-finalist Ben Shelton and the fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti, but out have gone the British No 2 Sonay Kartal and the injured Brazilian wunderkind Joao Fonseca. Currently on court we’ve got Taylor Fritz plus Gael Monfils, 93, who’s pushing to take his match against the Australian qualifier Dane Sweeny to a fifth set, while coming up in the night session Jannik Sinner gets his title defence under way and there’s also Naomi Osaka, Britain’s Katie Boulter against the in-form Belinda Bencic, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Grigor Dimitrov. So don’t go anywhere!
