MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Highlights of the first day of the Australian Open on Sunday (all times GMT):
0150 ANDREEVA STORMS PAST BOUZKOVA
Russian 14th seed Mirra Andreeva became the first player to move into the second after the 17-year-old beat Czech Marie Bouzkova 6-3 6-3.
0100 PLAY SUSPENDED FOR RAIN ON OUTER COURTS
The first rain interruption of the championships came after less than an hour when play was suspended on the outer courts as a thunder storm swept across the Melbourne Park precinct.
Play continued under closed roofs on the four showcourts and a fixture backlog is less likely after an extra day was added to the tournament last year.
0007 PLAY UNDERWAY AT THE 113TH AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Play got underway as scheduled under cloudy skies with the temperature at Melbourne Park hovering around the 27 degrees Celsius (80F) mark. There is a shower forecast for the early afternoon.
Aryna Sabalenka gets her quest for a third straight title underway in the evening session on Rod Laver Arena before Alexander Zverev begins his latest bid for a first Grand Slam title.
SUNDAY’S ORDER OF PLAY ON MAIN SHOWCOURTS (prefix number denotes seeding)
Rod Laver Arena
(From 0030)
5-Zheng Qinwen (China) v Anca Todoni (Romania)
6-Casper Ruud (Norway) v Jaume Munar (Spain)
(From 0800)
1-Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) v Sloane Stephens (United States)
Lucas Pouille (France) v 2-Alexander Zverev (Germany)
Margaret Court Arena
(From 0030)
Otto Virtanen (Finland) v 20-Arthur Fils (France)
Diane Parry (France) v 18-Donna Vekic (Croatia)
(From 0800)
24-Jiri Lehecka (Czech Republic) v Li Tu (Australia)
Anna Blinkova (Russia) v Daria Saville (Australia)
John Cain Arena
(From 0000)
Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic) v 14-Mirra Andreeva (Russia)
Kei Nishikori (Japan) v Thiago Monteiro (Brazil)
(From 0600)
11-Paula Badosa (Spain) v Wang Xinyu (China)
14-Ugo Humbert (France) v Matteo Gigante (Italy)
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(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney and Pearl Josephine Nazare, editing by Peter Rutherford)
