Japanese former world number four Kei Nishikori gives up his secret to winning yet another five-set epic, Lebanon has a new tennis hero, and Nick Kyrgios highlights day two’s offering at the Australian Open.

Here’s the five quick hits from the Australian Open.

• ScoreCentre: Check out all the scores here
• Live blog: Look back on how day one unfolded

1. Kei Nishikori’s secret fifth-set sauce 

Kei Nishkori has not played at the Australian Open in four years, as injuries ravaged the Japanese former world number four.

But despite being made to face two match points in the third set by Brazilian Thiago Monteiro, the 35-year-old fought through to win 4-6, 6-7(4/7), 7-5, 6-2, 6-3.

“I almost forgot I faced two match points,” he said, after four hours on court.

When the match went to a fifth set though, we should have known that Nishikori would prevail.

He is 29-8 in five-set matches, and 8-1 at the Australian Open in matches that have gone the distance — and that was against some bloke called Roger Federer.

So what does he put his energy reserves down to?

“I eat a lot of sushi,” he told media.

2. Lebanon’s number one breaking new ground

Prior to this year’s Australian Open, no male Lebanese player had ever won a set in a grand slam main draw.

None had ever reached the main draw in men’s singles, in fairness.

That was until qualifier Hady Habib, a 29-year-old who was born in Texas, took to the court against China’s world number 65 Yunchaokete Bu.

The world number 219 then took the first set in a tie break 7-6(7/4).

Then he took the second, 6-4.

And then, finally, he won the third 7-6(8/6) to claim a famous victory and send the Lebanese fans out on Court 13 wild with joy

3. Casper put a ring on it, now he wants others to

There’s been a bit of love in the air around the tennis world in the (brief) offseason.

Of course, Alex de Minaur proposed to Katie Boulter but so did Casper Ruud, who got down on one knee to Maria Galligani.

And the sixth seed used his time after winning his five-set epic against world number 62 Jaume Munar to urge some of his fellow players to do the same.

“The pulse got up there when you’re about to go down on your knees, it was a great moment. I’m nervous now when you ask me about it,” Ruud said on court.

“I’ll never forget playing Rafa in a slam final, but for sure I’ll also never forget going down on my knee to Maria. It was a beautiful moment, I think it was a bigger moment.

“There’s a few other young guys that have been in relationships for a long time, so I’m kind of teasing them. I hope for their girlfriends that they step up at some point.”

4. Rain frustrates opening day

Nobody likes it when rain spoils the party, so there would have been plenty of groans and grumps when rain washed out the best part of six hours of play on the outer courts.

More than 30mm of rain was recorded as play was halted and thunderstorms rippled around the grounds, as play did not resume until about 6.30pm AEDT.

The lack of play would have been hugely frustrating to the 55,704 in attendance for the day session, with eight of the 32 matches cancelled.

Organisers will use the cushion provided by the Sunday start, first added to the tournament last year, to reschedule those matches over the next two days.

5. Which Australians are playing today?

There are 11 locals in action on day two at the Australian Open, including Nick Kyrgios, playing his first singles match at the tournament in three years.

Here’s who’s playing, where and when (all times AEDT):

Wildcard Ajla Tomljanović takes on American Ashlyn Krueger from 11:30am on Margaret Court Arena, followed by 27th seed Jordan Thompson against German qualifier Dominik Koepfer.

From 4pm on John Cain Arena, 18-year-old wildcard Maya Joint plays her first main draw match at her home slam, taking on seventh seed Jessica Pegula. After that, Nick Kyrgios kicks off the twilight session against Briton Jacob Fearnley from 6pm.

Thanasi Kokkinakis plays Russia’s Roman Safiullin in the third match on Kia Arena, with Christopher O’Connell up against 12th-seeded American Tommy Paul immediately after.

Wildcard Talia Gibson is among the first starters at 11am, taking on Turkey’s Zeynep Sönmez on Court 3, with James Duckworth against Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker after that. Qualifier Destanee Aiava is the final match of the day on Court 3, against Belgian Greet Minnen.

Men’s wildcards James McCabe and Tristan Schoolkate are second on Court 6 and third on Court 7 respectively.