On a sensational day of tennis at Melbourne Park, Friday will see star-studded WTA quarterfinals light up MCA, while several big names in the men's game could be on double duty as they seek semifinal slots at their ATP 250 events.
World No.1 Novak Djokovic headlines a bumper schedule of ATP Cup play at Rod Laver Arena as the event's group stages reach a climax.
Australian Open final rematch
With Sofia Kenin and Garbine Muguruza enjoying third-round wins on Wednesday at Melbourne Park, we will be treated to an AO 2020 final rematch under lights at MCA.
Muguruza continued her dominant form at the Yarra Valley Classic with a 6-1 6-2 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to set up a quarterfinal clash with Kenin, who overcame Jessica Pegula in three sets.
“It's a good match to play. We played exactly almost one year ago … it was a tough match. It was a special match, also, being a final,” recalled Muguruza, who fell to Kenin in three sets in that decider. “Looking forward to facing her again, and try to turn the score around.”
ATP Cup semifinal places on the line
Two of the world’s top three – Djokovic and Dominic Thiem – will play their final singles matches of the group stages, against quality opposition.
Djokovic will lead Serbia into battle against Germany, playing Alexander Zverev in the second singles rubber of Rod Laver Arena’s day session. The winning nation will progress to a semifinal meeting with Russia.
Thiem faces Gael Monfils in the battle between No.1 singles players when Austria meets France under lights at Rod Laver Arena.
Beginning at 10am at John Cain Arena, Spain – represented by Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta – will take on the Stefanos Tsitsipas-led Team Greece.
MCA the place to be
Kenin v Muguruza is one of eight WTA quarterfinals scheduled for the arena, with all women's singles matches from Friday to follow the format of best-of-two regular tiebreak sets with a 10-point match tiebreak as the final set if players split sets.
World No.1 Ash Barty will take on Shelby Rogers in the first match of the day, before 23-time major champion Serena Williams battles 13th seed Danielle Collins.
Should Barty and Williams win, they would meet in the WTA Yarra Valley Classic semifinals.
As the day's play unfolds, top-five stars Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina will also take to the court for their quarterfinal matches.
ATP stars on double duty
Due to the back-log of matches after the suspension of Thursday's play, several big names in the men's game will have to play two singles matches on Friday to seal semifinal places at the ATP Murray River Open and Great Ocean Road Open.
In the last 16, Karen Khachanov will play former world No.5 Kevin Anderson, while Italian teen star Jannik Sinner tackles Slovene Aljaz Bedene.
Aussie trio Nick Kyrgios, Alex Bolt and Alexei Popyrin take on Borna Coric, Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov respectively, while another, Jordan Thompson, opens the day's play at 1573 Arena against Spain's Mario Vilella Martinez.
The winners of those matches will return to court later on Friday for quarterfinal clashes.