The big names buckled but refused to fall on an eventful day at the Australian Open on Wednesday.
Caroline Wozniacki’s was the most eye-catching comeback, the second seed recovering from 1-5 and two match points against Jana Fett, while Grigor Dimitrov was still going at nearly midnight before finally seeing off qualifier Mackenzie McDonald in five sets.
It was a much more straightforward affair for Britain’s Kyle Edmund, who followed up his big victory over Kevin Anderson by easing to a 6-2 6-2 6-4 win against Denis Istomin.
Tweet of the day
Christopher Kas, coach of Mona Barthel, can only sit and wait as marathon man Ivo Karlovic goes into extra time again. The Croatian eventually beat Yuichi Sugita 12-10 in the fifth set. It was not such good news for Barthel, who lost to Anett Kontaveit.
Picture of the day
Wedding belles
Wozniacki still has matters on court to attend to but the world number two is also busy planning her wedding to former NBA star David Lee. And the Dane revealed she has taken inspiration from good friend Serena Williams’ nuptials in New Orleans in November.
“I think, once you’re engaged, you start looking at things,” said Wozniacki. “You’re like, ‘Oh, I really like that, we’ll steal that inspiration for our own wedding’. We had a great time. Had a lot of fun. She looked beautiful. Little Olympia was beautiful, too. Really a special moment.”
In the firing line
British umpire James Keothavong probably expected a tricky evening when he was assigned the clash between Nick Kyrgios and Viktor Troicki. What he almost certainly did not expect was to take a wayward Troicki return smack on the head. Fortunately there was no harm done.
Fallen seeds
Men: Pablo Cuevas (31)
Women: Julia Goerges (12), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (15), Daria Kasatkina (22), Daria Gavrilova (23)
Thursday highlights
Johanna Konta will look to join Edmund in the third round when she takes on little-known American lucky loser Bernarda Pera in the opening match on Court 2.
Djokovic’s clash with Gael Monfils is the match of the day on the men’s side, while Roger Federer meets Jan-Lennard Struff.
The women’s draw is headlined by two intriguing clashes – a rematch of the US Open fourth-round encounter between Maria Sharapova and Anastasija Sevastova, which was won by the latter, and world number one Simona Halep taking on Eugenie Bouchard.
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