The third round is always the moment when a Grand Slam starts to take shape, and a number of the favourites for Australian Open 2020 find themselves in some tasty-looking encounters on Day 5.
Naomi Osaka’s clash with 15-year-old Coco Gauff is arguably the pick of Friday’s matches, opening the night session at Rod Laver Arena. The fast-rising Gauff has become one of the biggest names in tennis over the past six months, growing in maturity with every tournament since her remarkable fourth-round run at Wimbledon.
Osaka put the youngster in her place at last year’s US Open, handing out a 6-3 6-0 beat-down at this same stage, but Gauff has impressed so far at Melbourne Park with wins over Venus Williams and Sorana Cirstea. It will be intriguing to see whether she can get closer to the defending champion this time.
Kicking off the day’s play at Rod Laver Arena is top seed Ash Barty, who could find herself in real danger against the dangerous No.29 seed Elena Rybakina. Rybakina – the fastest-rising player in women’s tennis over the past year – is still untested at the very highest level, but the big-serving Kazakh has been irresistible so far in 2020, winning 11 of her 12 matches. Barty will need to be at her fluent best to keep her hopes alive.
Caroline Wozniacki will be hoping to continue her swansong and set up a potential last-16 clash with Serena Williams as she takes on Tunisian surprise package Ons Jabeur at Melbourne Arena. Williams follows Barty at RLA against Chinese No.1 Qiang Wang.
In the men’s singles, Roger Federer could face his first real test of the tournament against home favourite John Millman in the second night session match at RLA. The latter has used all his experience to secure a couple of superb victories so far, beating Auckland champion Ugo Humbert before taking out No.31 seed Hubert Hurkacz. Millman famously stunned Federer in four sets at the 2018 US Open. Could he repeat the feat at home?
No.6 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was a firm favourite with the crowds during many a late-night battle on his way to the semifinals last year, and the Greek could be involved in another classic on Friday evening against former world No.3 Milos Raonic at Margaret Court Arena.
Raonic, himself an Australian Open semifinalist back in 2016, has fallen outside the world’s top 30 due to injuries, but he had looked in impressive form in his first couple of matches this week. The Canadian will be looking to catch Tsitsipas cold after the Greek had a second-round walkover.
Defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic will also be in action in the third match at RLA against Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka. Djokovic beat Nishioka 6-1 6-2 in their only previous encounter at November’s Davis Cup Finals, and will be expected to reach the last 16 with a minimum of fuss.