AUSSIE OPEN DIARY

SVITOLINA QUIZZED ON MONFILS ROMANCE

POST-MATCH interviews on court at the Australian Open have a history of causing a kerfuffle and sixth seed Elina Svitolina was less than overjoyed to be asked about the presence of her boyfriend, French player Gael Monfils, in the stands. ‘I didn’t really expect to be asked that, because I just finished my match,’ she said later, after easing through to the third round. ANDRE AGASSI became the latest great to pay tribute to Andy Murray. The American, helping coach Grigor Dimitrov here, said: ‘You don’t want to see that with anybody, especially someone as great as he’s been and what he’s done for the game. He punched the clock every time he went on court.’

HERE COME THE KIDS

IN this day and age of tennis players thriving well into their thirties it is unusual that three teenagers have made the third round. One is the long-touted Denis Shapovalov of Canada, while the two others are both Australians, Alex de Minaur (who plays Rafael Nadal today) and the less-known Alexei Popyrin, from Sydney.

BOLT FROM BLUE IS STORY OF THE WEEK

IN what has been a decent Open so far for the home men the most heartening story is that of left-hander Alex Bolt, the world No 155 who yesterday made round three by beating Gilles Simon in five sets. Three years ago, disillusioned and broke, he gave up and got a job as a fence installer before deciding to give tennis a second crack. GIANT Croatian servebot Ivo Karlovic, 40 next month, nearly took out the one foot shorter No 8 seed Kei Nishikori before losing in a sudden-death tiebreaker. He served 59 aces in the match but still could not clinch victory. RACKET smash of the day came from Austria’s Dominic Thiem, the No 7 seed and supposed future Grand Slam champion. Thiem (left) totalled his racket as he began to lose to Aussie wildcard Alexei Popyrin, crunching it into the ground after losing the first set. He retired at 2-0 down in the third set, complaining he was ill.