Australian Open 2022: Norrie stunned, Zverev, Barty and Nadal win – as it happened

Today’s tennis stories from the Australian Open.

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4:07

And that will be all for today. The tennis at the Australian Open has finally begun after the seemingly endless Novak Djokovic visa/vaccination saga ... and I can exclusively reveal that tennis is much more fun. We’ll be back tomorrow for more. Much more! Bye.

17 Jan 202208.32 EST

Tumaini Carayol

“Cameron Norrie certainly never stopped trying. Even as game after game fell away and the match rushed to an increasingly unavoidable outcome, his footwork remained pristine, he continued to land as many returns as he could and he searched diligently for solutions."

Pushing half-past midnight, the No 18 seed Karatsev has finally done it! Munar pushed him to deuce, threatening to go even deeper into the final set, but Karatsev serves it out, and will progress into the second round. Beat that! Karatsev, in the end, hit 107 unforced errors. Presumably he raised his racket to the crowd when he reached his ton?

And now 30-30. Karatsev two points away ...

Munar has 15-30 on the Karatsev serve. Drama.

I’m seeing on Twitter that Karatsev has reached a century of unforced errors in this match. Impressive.

Munar holds serve against Karatsev. Karatsev is now serving for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set. What a cracker!

China’s Wang Qiang shocked Coco Gauff, the 18th seed, in the women’s singles earlier today. Here’s the report of that match, among others:

I’m unable to watch, but Munar v Karatsev sounds spicy. Munar had three break points at 0-40 on Karatsev’s serve which would have made it 4-4 ... but Karatsev eventually held and now leads 5-3 in the final set. Munar is serving to stay in match and tournament.

17 Jan 202208.14 EST

Tumaini Carayol

As the attention in Melbourne Park swiftly shifted from Australia’s legal courts to its tennis courts, the two most successful women’s players over the past few years both took their first steps towards a possible collision in the fourth round of the Australian Open. Naomi Osaka, the defending champion in Melbourne, returned to grand slam competition early in the day by defeating Camila Osorio 6-3, 6-3. The world No 1, Ashleigh Barty, followed her later in the day as she picked Lesia Tsurenko apart 6-0, 6-1 to reach the second round.

Emma Raducanu claimed a grand slam trophy even before she played a major champion but the 19-year-old could face a daunting task on her Australian Open debut when she meets former US Open winner Sloane Stephens on Tuesday.

Raducanu became the first qualifier to win a grand slam in the Open era when she defeated Leylah Fernandez in New York last September but the teenager has struggled to replicate the same form since, with early losses at Indian Wells and Linz.

She also contracted Covid-19 late last year and pulled out of the Australian Open warm-up tournament in Melbourne, before an early defeat by Elena Rybakina in Sydney but Raducanu said she was not bogged down by disappointing results.

“I think it’s going to be a tough match for sure. I’m going to go out there and enjoy the match because just playing in this grand slam, I had to work so hard to be here. Yeah, I’ll just go out there and enjoy,” Raducanu said.

Three former French Open champions are also in action on the main showcourts at Melbourne Park, as the Spaniard Garbine Muguruza takes on Clara Burel, Poland’s Iga Swiatek plays Harriet Dart and Romanian Simona Halep faces Magdalena Frech.

Among the men, Russian second seed Daniil Medvedev takes on Swiss Henri Laaksonen on Rod Laver Arena, while fourth-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas plays Swede Mikael Ymer. Russia’s Andrey Rublev is also in action against Italian Gianluca Mager. (Reuters)

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It’s past midnight in Melbourne. What an epic duel between Karatsev, seeded 18, and Munar. The Spaniard, who comes from Majorca, has forced it back to 4-3 in the final set.

Karatsev has gone 4-1 up in the final set against Munar:

6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3), 4-6, 2-4

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Dominant stuff from Paula Badosa today. She’s one to watch for sure.

Aslan Karatsev, the No 18 seed, has gone a break up in the final set of his epic five-set duel with Jaume Munar. He leads 3-1 and 40-0.

Eurosport don’t seem to be showing it anywhere, though, not on either of their UK channels or in the app.

Badosa has a chat with the clock close to midnight in Melbourne: “I’m really happy to be here, to play on this stage, I always saw this court [Margaret Court Arena] on TV, it’s my first time playing on this court, and I really enjoyed playing here ... credit to the physio [in the first-set medical timeout], they did a good job, three minutes I know is not a lot time ... it helped me a lot ... I knew I had to go for my shots, I’m a little bit exhausted, but it goes how it goes ...

“I want to thank the Aussie people, I wasn’t expecting having today people cheering for me and I really appreciate it ... it’s amazing to play in front of crowds again. I appreciate it more because it’s very late, so thank you for staying. She’s an amazing player, I played her last week and it was a very tough match, and I was expecting a very tough one ... I wish her a speedy recovery, and the same for me, because I’m playing in two days.”

The first set was closer, the second set was completely one-sided. Both players took a medical timeout in the first set, so perhaps there is a question mark on Badosa’s fitness ... but on that kind of form, she is a threat for the title.

Badosa 6-4, 5-0 *Tomljanović (* denotes next server)

Another very easy hold for Badosa, who had an excellent year last year, and on this form will be very hopeful of going deep into the tournament. Can Tomljanović get on the board in this second set?

Badosa* 6-4, 4-0 Tomljanović (* denotes next server)

Badosa is crushing the ball from the baseline. She strikes one particularly powerful forehand winner down the line. She punches the air as her opponent, the Australian Tomljanović, looks a bit shell-shocked. Badosa is a double break up and cruising into the second round, unless Tomljanović can somehow turn the tables.

Munar v Karatsev (18) is turning into an epic: Latest score is 6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3), 4-6. They are into a fifth and final set.

Badosa 6-4, 3-0 Tomljanović* (* denotes next server)

Badosa now holds to love, the first love game of the match. She is running away with this ...

Badosa* 6-4, 2-0 Tomljanović (* denotes next server)

The Spaniard, who is striking the ball with tremendous authority and moving superbly around the court, breaks early in the second set, while Tomljanović shakes her head in disbelief. This is going to be over sooner rather than later unless Tomljanović can upset her opponent’s momentum.

Badosa holds to begin the second set against Tomljanović. 6-4, 1-0.

“You can reach over, but you cannot touch the net ... he’s done incredibly well there.”

As I mentioned earlier, this shot by Altmaier was a bit of a madness ... look at the backspin on the shot by Zverev, on the replay from courtside!

I didn’t notice at the time but it appears that Zverev didn’t actually realise he’d sealed the match when he won the decisive point against Altmaier. Comical scenes.

The Spaniard and No 8 seed Badosa has a fourth match point against Tomljanović ... and she takes it! She wins the first set, 6-4.

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Zverev speaks: “Not much went to plan today, to be honest, except that I won, but that’s how it is sometimes, it’s the first round of hopefully a very long tournament ... you’re not always going to play your best tennis, except if you’re Roger or Rafa, you always come out and you’re always perfection, but I’m not like them ... it was a good match for me to get into the tournament, and hopefully next time will be better.”

Asked a question about the wind and whether or not it was difficult to deal with, Zverev says: “It’s very tough to understand what you’re saying, ... I am German, with Russian roots, living in Monaco,” he replies, smiling, as the crowd laughs “English is my fourth language, so ...”

The crowd cheers and continues to roar with laughter. Zverev now looks ahead to his second-round date with John Millman: “I played him a few times, I played him once at the French Open which was five-and-a-half hours, five sets, so ... yeah, he’s a very difficult player to beat ... hopefully it’ll be another fun one, and I’m looking forward to being back on court.”

Altmaier, deservedly, gets a fine ovation from the crowd on Rod Laver Arena.

That was a stern examination for the world No 3 and third seed Zverev against the world No 87 ... a cracking match in the end. Two hours and 38 minutes, in the end, and Altmaier fought impressively hard on his first appearance at the Australian Open.

Zverev bashes an Altmaier second serve down the line for 5-1.

Utterly lovely stuff from Zverev, forcing Altmaier into submission, crashing a forehand deep into the corner that his opponent has zero hope of getting back. 3-1 in the tiebreak, and now 4-1, and this looks all but over.

Zverev tonks a trademark serve down for 1-0, then edges another gruelling baseline rally for 2-0 in the breaker ... did Zverev expect this match to be so tough? Altmaier hits back with a good wide first serve for 2-1.

Tomljanović trails Badosa 5-4 in the first set ... both players have broken serve three times!

He’s done it! 7-6, 6-1, 6-6. It’s a third-set tiebreak. Hats off to Altmaier for keeping the vibe alive.

Zverev hits long! Another game point for Altmaier, and a chance to force a tiebreak! Can he seal it?

Altmaier forces a game point. Zverev saves it – and swiftly creates match point no 4 ... but Altmaier crunches a stunning first serve down the middle, and he’s still alive!

Altmaier double-faults for 0-15 in this potentially decisive game. A punishing, physical rally then finishes with the younger man finding the net and it’s 0-30. Two points away for Zverev. Zverev then whips a stunning crosscourt backhand which fizzes away beyond Altmaier. Simply too good. Zverez smells blood, but then a brilliant sliced backhand from his opponent, approaching the net, gets him on the board in this service game and it’s 15-40 ... Zverev soon hits beyond the baseline for 30-40 ... and hits it out, again, and Altmaier has fought back to deuce!

A dimissive service hold from Zverev and it’s 6-5 in the third. The overall scores on the doors are 7-6, 6-1, 6-5. Altmaier has fought really well. But now he needs to serve to stay in the match.

In the women’s singles, on Margaret Court Arena, Ajla Tomljanović and Paula Badosa are in the first set, with the Spanish No 8 seed leading 4-3. We’ll join up with that one as soon as Zverev v Altmaier is done and dusted.

A cracking rally, in which Altmaier has Zverev on the back foot, ends with Altmaier volleying wide for 15-30 and Zverev is only two points away from progress to the next round. Altmaier comes again, though, sneaks to 30-30 and then sets up a game point ... and he gets it! There seemed to be a call of ‘out’ from the crowd, which perhaps confused Zverev, but anyway, it’s 5-5! We still have a game on here.

Here’s that odd little winner from Altmaier from earlier on, courtesy of Eurosport Germany:

Zverev holds with ease and moves to 5-4 in the third. He is a game away from a straight-sets win. Hats to Altmaier for fighting back into this match after he flaked in the second set ... but can he turn up the heat again, and force Zverev into some uncomfortable places at the business end of the third?

Tell you what though, it’s nice to see some actual tennis after all the Novak Djokovic nonsense, isn’t it? I wonder what happened to him.

Zverev cruises into a 0-40 lead on the Altmaier serve. But the 23-year-old, who hails from Kempen near Düsseldorf, produces a couple of massive serves, and massive points, to grind it back to deuce from what then became 15-40. Zverev hits a poor shot long, to give Altmaier a game point, but Altmaier then double-faults at what feels like almost the worst possible time. Mentally, however, Altmaier is present and correct, and cracks a superb deep forehand to the corner to bring himself another game point ... But Zverev isn’t going away, he saves that game point, and then Altmaier attempts a strange floaty effort wide which bounces out. Zverev then forces another error, and he soon breaks, and that feels very significant indeed, because Altmaier was so, so close to moving to 5-4 there. Instead it’s 4-4 and Zverev has cancelled out the break.

Daniel Altmaier is fighting back against his compatriot, Alexander Zverev.

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