{"id":422934,"date":"2026-01-19T09:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422934\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T09:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:04:08","slug":"what-to-watch-on-day-3-of-the-australian-open-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422934\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Watch on Day 3 of the Australian Open \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 3 of the Australian Open. Let the title defenses begin! Sinner, Keys and a bevy of other high-profile first-rounders will take us to the end of the first round in Melbourne \u2013 read on to find out what we\u2019ll be watching\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"tennis<\/a>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we\u2019ll be keeping tabs on.<\/p>\n

SEE THE FULL DAY 3 ORDER OF PLAY HERE <\/a><\/p>\n

Defenders Alight<\/p>\n

Madison Keys begins her Aussie Open title defense with an early start on Rod Laver Arena. The ninth-seeded American, who ended Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s bid for a three-peat in last year\u2019s dramatic women\u2019s singles final, will take on Oleksandra OIiynykova of Ukraine, a 25-year-old with a ranking of 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keys is giddy to be returning to the scene of the crime, the place where she notched cliff-hanging wins over Iga Swiatek and Sabalenka in the semifinals and finals to become a Grand Slam champion for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really just incredible to walk around. It\u2019s really just so kind of a pinch-me moment where you dream of being a Grand Slam champion when you\u2019re a little girl, then being able to come back,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a really cool photo of me holding the trophy. Getting to see those, it\u2019s something you dream of in your career. Then being able to experience it is really fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the night session, two-time champion Jannik Sinner, a winner of his last 14 Australian Open matches, begins his bid for a three-peat against Hugo Gaston. Sinner, seeded second, has won 27 of his last 28 hard court Grand Slam matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ubiquitous Men\u2019s Popcorn\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019re excited to see a pair of men\u2019s singles matches that feature fan favorites. Hubert Hurkacz, who fired 95 aces in five matches at United Cup a week ago, will face Belgium\u2019s Zizou Bergs, who recorded a pair of Top-20 wins at the same event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grigor Dimitrov will go against Tomas Machac, the man who just powered to the Adelaide title with a gritty victory over Ugo Humbert. While we\u2019re talking about popcorn, let\u2019s not sleep on Ben Shelton vs Ugo Humbert, second up on Rod Laver, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gael\u2019s Last AO<\/p>\n

Over on Kia Arena, 38-year-old Gael Monfils will take on Aussie qualifier Dane Sweeny as Monfils hopes to prolong his final stay at the Happy Slam in what will be his last season on tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two-time quarterfinalist Monfils has 37 Australian Open wins and countless memories to his name. 182-ranked Sweeny is making his second main draw appearance down under.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kasatkina \u2013 Aussie Aussie Aussie\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now an official Australian Citizen, Daria Kasatkina will play her first Grand Slam match under the Aussie flag against qualifier Nikola Bartunkova on ANZ Arena. Should be a festive atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Will she be feeling the pressure?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a good pressure, so I would choose this one compared to what I have been through in the past couple of years,\u201d said Kasatkina. \u201cSo\u2026 let\u2019s call it a fun pressure, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso for the first time I\u2019m gonna play in front of such a big home crowd, so that\u2019s gonna be special. Definitely have to manage my nerves, because it\u2019s gonna be \u2014 I mean, never been in this situation before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Day 3 of the Australian Open. Let the title defenses begin! Sinner, Keys and a bevy of other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-422934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}