Here are the Australians playing on day one at Melbourne Park (all times AEDT):
There is rain expected today and some dark clouds are looming over Melbourne Park, so we could see some matches suspended.
Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and John Cain Arena have roofs, so matches can continue in there regardless of the weather, but the likes of Australians Omar Jasika, Adam Walton and Aleksandar Vukic may have some things shuffled around.
Starting the tournament a day early gives more leeway to make up time if we do lose some matches.
There are also windows on those arenas with roofs specifically left aside between the day and evening sessions to allow matches on outside courts to be moved indoors if need be.
China’s Olympic gold medallist and the runner-up from last year’s women’s singles final returns to Rod Laver Arena for her first-round match against Romania’s Anca Todoni.
Zheng wins the coin toss and opts to receive.
The coin was tossed by young Ivy, who was accompanied by Australian great John Newcombe, who is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his seventh and final major singles title at the 1975 Australian Open.
There are some clouds around and rain expected, so we have a bit of a delay after the warm-up as organisers close the roof on Rod Laver Arena.
The other 11:30am AEDT starters are next door on Margaret Court Arena, with French 20th seed Arthur Fils taking on Otto Virtanen of Finland.
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The Australian world number 180 held serve in the opening game to shake out some nerves, he’s been broken quickly in his next offering by Frenchman Hugo Gaston, ranked 99 places higher than him.
And Gaston holds his own serve to go up 1-3.
Interestingly, Jasika and Gaston are both lefties, which doesn’t happen often.
The 2014 junior US Open winner is on Court 3 against France’s Hugo Gaston.
Jasika and Gaston are part of the first wave of matches:
Action doesn’t start on Rod Laver Arena and Margaret Court Arena for another half-hour.
what channel is it on?
– Margaret
Hi Margaret,
I can’t imagine why you’d need anything other than ABC Sport’s live coverage, but if you must, it’s on Channel Nine and Stan Sport.
Two-time defending women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka is first up in the night session at 7pm AEDT, when she’ll play 2017 US Open winner Sloane Stephens in a tough first-round match-up that will give us an immediate inside into the Belarusian’s form.
The woman Sabalenka beat in last year’s Australian Open final, Qinwen Zheng, will also take to the court. She’s first on Rod Laver Arena at 11:30am, up against Romanian qualifier Anca Todoni.
Men’s sixth seed Casper Ruud will also hit centre court against Spain’s Jaume Munar from midday, while second seed Alexander Zverev is the final night match on Laver, against French wildcard Lucas Pouille.
Among the 11am matches to watch out for, Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva returns to Melbourne Park after her shock run to the fourth round as a 16-year-old last year. She is back as the 14th seed after a breakout 2024 and takes on 42nd-ranked Marie Bouzkova to start.
And former US Open finalist and 30th seed Leylah Fernandez is up against Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva.
Today isn’t the busiest day of the tournament, with just 32 singles matches scheduled for the extra day added to the two-week schedule.
But things will get busier going forward so, in addition to following our live blogs and all the other coverage on ABC Sport, bookmark our live ScoreCentre for all the results and the schedule.
The first tennis major of 2025 is just about ready to kick off, with the opening main-draw matches less than an hour away.
We here at ABC Sport will be across every moment of the Australian Open, with 15 straight days of live blogging and coverage of everything happening in and around Melbourne Park.
I’m Jon Healy and I’ll be joined today by Luke Pentony, Marnie Vinall, Simon Smale, Chris De Silva and Nick Campton.
So stick around as we bring you all the latest, both on and off the court.
