Key events
Mike Hytner
Nadal’s training top and shoes match the colour of the blue court, but once he peels his top off, he’s in a bright orange playing shirt. Draper is in Wimbledon-appropriate all white, with just a splash of colour in his sweatband and cap. Here’s the toss: Draper wins and elects to receive first.
Righto, with that, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of my colleague Angus Fontaine who will take you through the match. Cheerio for now.
Good afternoon, tennis fans. Welcome to our round one clash between Rafael Nadal and Jack Draper. Players are on court and there’s voluminous support all round from a packed centre court at Rod Laver Arena. Despite the furnace-like heat the combatants will have a quick warm up and then we’ll get to the action.
The players are spotted in the bowels of Rod Laver Arena. Nadal, as always, is doing his best impersonation of a Duracell bunny, a bundle of energy, in constant motion as he gears up for his first test of this Australian Open. Draper looks focused. After the long walk past the names of former champions etched onto the walls of the tunnel, out they come into the stadium, to rapturous applause. Draper first, and then Nadal.
Some useful factoids about Rafael Nadal, courtesy of AAP:
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Age: 36
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Ranking: 2
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Plays: left-handed (two-handed backhand)
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Career prize money: $US134,529,921
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Career titles: 92
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Grand slam titles: 22 (Australian Open 2009, 2022; French Open 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022; Wimbledon 2008, 2010; US Open 2010, 2013, 2017, 2019)
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Australian Open win-loss record: 76-15
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Best Australian Open results: champion 2009, 2022; runner-up 2012, 2014, 2017, 2019
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Men’s tennis’ most prolific grand slam title winner is defending his crown in Melbourne for the first time in 13 years after cashing in on Novak Djokovic’s absence 12 months ago. Elevated to top seed following the withdrawal of injured world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz.
While we wait, Emma Raducanu has also made it safely through to the second round. Here’s what our man on the ground Tumaini Carayol thought:
“After moving timidly in the early exchanges, Raducanu progressively improved throughout her time on court and she finished her Australian Open first round match on top of the baseline, completely outmatching Tamara Korpatsch of Germany as she comfortably moved into the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 win.”
Tumaini’s full report of that one is incoming, hang tight.
Emma Raducanu moves into the Australian Open second round with a 6-3 6-2 win over Tamara Korpatsch.
Raducanu looked tentative with her ankle early on, but improved as the match wore on. Moved decently and outmatched an underpowered Korpatsch from the baseline. Good performance. pic.twitter.com/INbX1LIUZC
— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) January 16, 2023
Maria Sakkari, the Greek No 6 seed, has indeed wrapped up a straight-sets win over Yuan Yue of China, 6-1, 6,4, so the 2009 and 2022 men’s champion Rafael Nadal will be up soon enough on Rod Laver. The in-form Jack Draper is his opponent. Tumaini Carayol had this to say about the clash:
The US duo Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff are also through to the second round. Pegula, the world No 3, was the first player to post victory earlier this morning at Melbourne Park – a routine 6-0, 6-1 victory over Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian – while seventh seeded Gauff needed seven match points in the final game of her opener to see off Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-1, 6-4.
A couple of big results to bring you up to speed with, then. First, a big one with a local flavour – rising star Olivia Gadecki, who is being mentored by none other than Ash Barty at this Open, won her first main draw grand slam match 7-5, 6-1 against teenage qualifier Polina Kudermetova. The 20-year-old was lost for words earlier, after becoming the first Australian into the second round of this year’s tournament.
“I actually can’t believe it. Wow, I’m speechless,” Gadecki said. “It’s such an amazing crowd, my home slam, my first-ever main-draw grand slam win. I mean, a girl can only dream.”
Emma Kemp’s report is on its way, stay tuned for more details.
Weather update: According to our woman on the ground, Emma Kemp, it’s “hot af” in Melbourne today. Emma, this is for the liveblog, have you any more printable details? “The mercury says 25C but with with humidity feels closer to 30, which means on court it will feel a few degrees hotter than that,” she elaborates. “It’s meant to hit 29 in an hour or so.” Right you are, hot af.
Preamble
Mike Hytner
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the 2023 Australian Open. The tennis on day one is already under way at a steaming Melbourne Park, with the men’s No 1 and defending champion Rafael Nadal due on court shortly for his potential banana-skin opener against the rising star of British tennis, Jack Draper.
The preceding women’s match between Yuan Yue and Maria Sakkari is in the second set, with sixth seeded Sakari currently leading 4-3, so there’s a chance Nadal and Draper will get their encounter up and running pretty much on time – they are officially up “not before 2:30pm” on Rod Laver Arena. It’s currently 2:06pm local time.
I’ll give an update on already-banked results on the opening day of action in a tick, but for now, remember you can get in touch on this email address with thoughts on this match, the tournament in general or any other (tennis-related) business.