Live: ‘Brutal’ Australian Open fans under fire again after Collins’s post-match antics

Second seed Alexander Zverev has won the first set of his third-round match against Brit Jacob Fearnley, who you may remember as the man who beat Nick Kyrgios in the opening round.

Zverev, like fellow top-three seed Alcaraz, looks destined for the second week of the tournament in peak form after wrapping up the opening frame on Margaret Court Arena with a booming serve up the T on the half-hour.

And Fearnley is seeking some treatment on his lower back and is leaving the court for an assessment.

The third seed is rolling on Rod Laver Arena, taking the first two sets against Nuno Borges in barely an hour.

Borges sits just outside the seeds, ranked 33rd in the world, but is no match for the might of four-time major winner Alcaraz, who hit 24 winners to Borges’s eight in the first two sets.

Another brilliant match wraps up on Kia Arena with Spanish 11th seed Paula Badosa progressing past Ukrainian 11th seed Marta Kostyuk in three tough sets.

Kostyuk was in tears as she dropped serve with three double faults and an unforced error in the second game of the final set, but recovered to get back into it from 3-0 down.

Kostyuk made the quarters last year, but now she’s out at the hands of Badosa, who’s endured a hellacious run with injuries over the past couple years.

“Being back in the fourth round, it’s an amazing feeling. Another opportunity to enjoy and be back on court. Thank you.”

Hi Stella,

That’s an interesting take.

The festival atmosphere at Melbourne Park is certainly part of what attracts people to the tennis and it does lead to people wandering in and out of venues at different times.

Do people need to get more on board with the staid etiquette of tennis from years past, or do players and the sport need to move forward and be more willing to accept a more active supporter base?

Of course, this all comes with the caveat that targeted abuse and disruption during play is out of the question.

After two hard-fought sets, 11th seed Paula Badosa went up a break and 3-0 in the third against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.

Facing the prospect of going down 4-0 and her tournament surely being over with Badosa at Advantage in the game on the back of consecutive double faults, 17th seed Kostyuk whipped out the under-arm serve, drew Badosa forward and finished with a clean backhand winner.

Two points later, she’s still in the set at 3-1.

Donna Vekić has won through to the fourth round in a thrilling three-hour clash with 12th seed Diana Shnaider.

In a see-sawing match on Margaret Court Arena, 18th seed Vekić just managed to sneak past 20-year-old Shnaider and into a fourth-round match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who shocked her in the first round here last year.

When asked what got her over the line, she said “the crowd”.

“It’s not without a reason that this is one of my favourite courts. Thank you for watching us and supporting us. So many Croatians in the crowd.”

Shnaider is a star on the rise and there was not much between them in the end, with 28-year-old Vekić holding her nerve in the biggest moments of the match a little better. There was a warm embrace at the net, both players realising how great a contest that was.

“It was tough. It was pretty warm, she was playing unbelievable.

“In my next life I want to be a leftie. It was an incredible match.

“The ice bath is waiting for me.”

The Australian wildcard pairing of Kim Birrell and Olivia Gadecki are through to the second round of the women’s doubles with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Ulrikke Eikeri and Makoto Ninomiya.

It’s a nice moment for both the Aussies, both of whom were knocked out in the first round of the singles as the first- and third-ranked Australian women on tour.

Third-seeded Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz is on centre court to take on Portugal’s Nuno Borges for a spot in the fourth round.

Alcaraz reached the quarterfinals last year, which was considered a below-par performance, but looks back to his best this year and is coming off a dominant 0, 1, 4 win over Yoshihito Nishioka.

Borges, meanwhile, might have the crowd off side. He’s already facing one of the most popular players on tour, plus he knocked out Australia’s Jordan Thompson in the last round.

And the favouritism for Alcaraz was driven home by this kid’s celebration at Alcaraz winning the coin toss.

The way he shouted “Oh, it’s AO!” when Alcaraz won the toss was adorable.

After the photo, the HotShot kid, clearly enamoured by Alcaraz, got a crisp high-five for his trouble.

You’ve got to love it.

Hi Roland,

You’re not wrong. Sport needs villains and heroes. And, just as the crowd is entitled to voice its collective opinion as long as  it doesn’t stray into abuse or disruption during play, Danielle Collins is entitled to ham it up and give it right back.

Some might think it’s lame, some might think it’s great, but it’s not hurting anyone.

That’s not a bad point, M.

Destanee Aiava has worked her bum off to be where she’s at and is still grinding. Danielle Collins (who has also worked hard for her career) invoking more money for her pile feels a little bit tone-deaf.

As does celebrating like a pantomime villain before shaking her opponent’s hand.

It might have been straight sets, but that was an utterly brutal two hours and six minutes on Rod Laver Arena for top seed Aryna Sabalenka against Clara Tauson.

Sabalenka, who has dropped only one set in her past 17 matches at the Australian Open, says she was pushed to the limit by the world number 42.

“That was a great battle. She played unbelievable tennis. It was really tough to play against her today.”

“Honestly I was playing this match and thinking ‘wow girl, you’re really tough’. So many times I was thinking ‘OK, I’m done’, but I was like ‘keep pushing’.”

Sabalenka pays credit to the centre court crowd for giving her a boost to keep playing.

“What an atmosphere, thank you so much for all the support. Thank you.

“You guys are helping [me] so much to stay in, to push myself to keep playing in front of you and enjoy this atmosphere.”

Donna Vekic won the first in a tiebreak and Diana Shnaider has taken the second in the same fashion.

Shnaider, the 12th seed, and Vekic, seeded 18th, are vying for a spot in the fourth round against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

This is a truly phenomenal third-round match between top seed Aryna Sabalenka and 42nd-ranked Clara Tauson, who recovered from a break down to get back to 4-4, but she’s been broken in a marathon 12-minute game to make it 5-4 in the second.

Denmark’s Tauson is challenging the two-time defending champion in a way she rarely has been at any point in the past two years at the Australian Open.

Tauson is basically matching the biggest hitter on tour from the baseline but 32 unforced errors and six double faults are costing her.

Tauson had SEVEN chances in that ninth game to go up 5-4 on her serve, but couldn’t convert any of them. Now Sabalenka will serve for the match.

After he lost to Jacob Fearnley in the first round of the singles, Nick Kyrgios said he couldn’t see himself playing singles at the Australian Open ever again.

Now, after he and injury-riddled mate Thanasi Kokkinakis were forced to retire in their doubles opener against countrymen James Duckworth and Aleksandar Vukic, Kyrgios again says it may have been the final time.

Kyrgios is coming back from wrist surgery, which can be brutal for tennis players (just ask grand slam champions Dominic Thiem and Juan Martin del Potro) and has struggled with abdominal issues in the lead-up and throughout his two matches in the tournament.

We’ve got an all-Aussie pair in action on Court 7, with wildcards Kim Birrell and Olivia Gadecki starting their women’s campaign against Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Japan’s Makoto Ninomiya.

Meanwhile, on 1573 Arena, John Peers is pairing with Jamie Murray, the brother of three-time singles major winner Andy Murray, in their first-round clash with Dutch pair Tallon Griekspoor and Botic van de Zandschulp.

We can only hope Peers’s fate is better than that of his fellow gold-medal-winning Australian, Matthew Ebden, who was knocked out in the first round earlier today.

Peers and Murray have both won the Australian Open in men’s doubles (2017 for Peers, 2016 for Murray), while Murray also won the US Open men’s doubles in 2016 and five mixed doubles slams (three US, two Wimbledon).

Peers is the most recent major winner though, winning the US Open mixed doubles in 2022 alongside Storm Hunter.

It’s a tricky line to walk when it comes to fan behaviour.

The crowd is obviously going to get behind the local favourites, but is it poor form to cheer faults? I’m honestly not sure.

Doing it for the entire match is pretty poor, but I myself have let out an almost involuntary sound when I know the player I’m rooting for has a chance to face a second serve on a big point. And when a few thousand people do that, it can feel a bit targeted.

Collins has never minded playing the pantomime villain, so I’m sure she’ll be OK.

Tournament officials do their best to keep people quiet, but it’s not always easy and perhaps not even reasonable to expect people to be silent during a sporting event.

So long as people aren’t being abusive or intentionally disruptive during play, I don’t mind. But every case is unique, every crowd is different and every player’s reaction will vary.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is through to the fourth round at the Australian Open for the first time since 2020 after a comprehensive 6-1, 6-2 win over Laura Siegemund.

Siegemund beat 2024 runner-up Qinwen Zheng to open up that section of the draw, and now veteran Pavlyuchenkova, who played her first main draw at Melbourne Park way back in 2009, is the first player into the round of 16 in either the men’s or women’s draw.

Pavlyuchenkova is a three-time quarterfinalist at the Australian Open (2017, 2019 and 2020) and reached the French Open final in 2021.

She awaits the winner of the match between 12th seed Diana Shnaider and 18th seed Donna Vekic, currently being played on Margaret Court Arena. Vekic won the first set in a tiebreak.

It took 63 minutes and five chances, but Aryna Sabalenka has avoided losing her first set at the Australian Open in two years.

Clara Tauson fought off four set points while serving at 5-6 and came back from 4-2 down in the tiebreak to get back to 5-5, but eventually top seed and two-time defending champion Sabalenka has taken the opening frame 7-6(5).

World number 42 Tauson is coming off a season-opening title in Auckland.

Reigning Newcombe medallist Matthew Ebden was the toast of Australian tennis after his victory at the Australian Open doubles alongside Rohan Bopanna last year, plus an Olympic gold medal with John Peers.

But his journey in the men’s doubles this year with Joran Vliegen of Belgium has ended just after parking brake was taken off, beaten 6-1, 6-4 in just over an hour by Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.

Ebden and Vliegen were the ninth seeds, while Krajicek and Ram are playing their first grand slam as a pair, but they have teamed up regularly in Davis Cup and at last year’s Olympics, where they were beaten in the final by Ebden and Peers.