Australian Open – Day Three: Dutch tennis ace pulls off the ‘shot of the year’ against

After a huge tug of war the Brit forces Marino to hit her shot into the net and clinches a 4-6 6-3 5-7. victory!

Boulter is playing with some confidence right now.

She delivers a brilliant Ace right down the middle of the court before following that up with a booming forehand that just scrapes the baseline to go 4-3 up against her opponent.

Alex de Minaur isn’t here just yet, but he’s been keeping a close eye on the match, letting out a smile as Boulter held service at the start of the third set while he warms down on the bike!

Katie Boulter dished out a stinging reply to beefcake fiance Alex de Minaur on Tuesday after the Aussie star shared a shot of himself in training ahead of his first-round clash against Botich van de Zandschulp.

The Aussie star dazziled fans with his pulsating biceps, but Boulter hit back in the comments section on his Instagram story.

Check out her funny response below…

De Minaur fires a long ball to the right side of the court, forcing the Dutchman to track back to chase the shot.

With his back to the net he just about makes it to the ball before it goes dead, before Van de Zandschulp skipped forward, opened his legs and struck a backwards tweener over the net to win the point.

The sensational shot sends the Rod Laver Arena into meltdown, with Channel 9’s commentary team calling it ‘the shot of the year’.

Even De Minaur can’t believe it, clapping his hands on his racket in admiration of the Dutchman’s skills.

I’m always striving for more I feel like I had a good year last year. I feel like I can improve my game so much more.

I’m going to keep improving and hopefully you’ll see me a lot more in the rankings.

Alex de Minaur quietly slipped into the Kia Arena to watch Katie Boulter straight after he sealed victory over on Rod Laver earlier tonight.

That was way too stressful for me I would have preferred a much easier match – she [Marino] came out firing today.

That was massively mental for me I’ve been playing great tennis on the practice court. She was playing great and I know how hard it can be.

Here we go, it’s Marino to serve, with Boulter taking a 6-5 lead in the third set.

She hits a shot too long over the baseline to go love-15 down after a huge rally.

She responds brilliantly to go 15-15, with the Brit firing a huge backhand across the court.

It’s a battle of the serves here at the Kia Arena.

Boulter had gone 5-4 up but couldn’t make an in-road on Marino’s service, with the Canadian serving out to love in the 10th game. I think this match might just go the distance!

Marino’s first service win rate is slightly higher than Boulter’s right now, with the Canadian winning 93 per cent to Boulter’s 81 per cent.

It’s a battle of the serves here at the Kia Arena.

Boulter had gone 5-4 up but couldn’t make an in-road on Marino’s service, with the Canadian serving out to love in the 10th game. I think this match might just go the distance!

Marino’s first service win rate is slightly higher than Boulter’s right now, with the Canadian winning 93 per cent to Boulter’s 81 per cent.

Here’s how Carlos Alcaraz congratulated Alex de Minaur on his engagement to Katie Boulter following their exhibition match last week…

A whopping 90,102 people have made their way into the Tennis precinct today, smashing the previous record for a Tuesday day/night session of 83,015, which was set in 2024.

Now a whopping 267,091 people have attended the Australian Open main draw!

Right we’re over at the Kia Arena now and Katie Boulter has just held serve to go 3-2 up against Rebecca Marino.

She lets out a huge roar after saving two break points, before sweeping a huge forehand to the far right corner of the court!

Meanwhile, Sweet Caroline is playing over the tannoy and the fans are in full voice!

It looked like it had been coming after Rebecca Marino broke Boulter to go 2-0 up in the second set.

Marino seems to have tide up her service game up too, with the Canadian slamming down three aces while winning 88 per cent of her first service points.

Boulter struggled to offer hit back on her opponent’s serve with the set finishing 6-3 to the Canadian.

Marino, 34, currently sits at 98 in the WTA rankings, with her highest placing coming in 2011 where she reached world No 38.

Her highest finish at the Australian Open came that same year and again in 2021, where she reached the Round of 64.

Alex de Minaur was asked how he looks so cool, but his response was a brilliant one.

I’m glad I look that way. Honestly what gives me a sense of calm is knowing the amount of work I’ve put in behind the scenes knowing I’ve done everything in my power to be ready.

As soon as I walk onto this court I know every single one of you guys has my back so I’m going to do my very best.

Pressed after tonight’s match on his engagement to Katie Boulter, who is 5-2 down in the second set against Rebecca Marino at the Kia Arena, De Minaur said he had to rush off to watch his new fiancee.

Yeah, look, 2024 was a special year and it ended in the best possible way. But in saying that she’s playing right now so I better get out there and watch!

The Rod Laver Arena erupts as the Aussie star fist-bumps the air!

That was a real battle and while he suffered defeat Botic van de Zandschulp was brilliant throughout.

De Minaur, though, was brilliant, claiming a 6-1 7-5 4-6 win.

Boulter had to fight to win the final game, with Marino saving two set points, before having her chance to break Boulter back.

But the British star showed her resilience, clawing the game back to deuce before finally claiming the first set.

It’s all action right now from tennis’ power couple who announced their engagement late last year, with the pair having been together for four years now.

In fact their first date came back in March 2020 over an impromptu 6am coffee!

Van de Zandschulp’s stunning backwards tweener left De Minaur’s coaches aghast!

He’res how the Aussie reacted…

Katie Boulter takes the lead in the first set, breaking Marino to love after the Canadian fired a poorly timed shot over the baseline.

The Brit is looking in good form right now and has held serve to go 3-5 up.

Harriet Dart, Jacob Fearnley, Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu have all progressed to the next round of the Australian Open and things are looking very bright for British tennis down under.

But what can we expect from the brits in 2025?

One fan has the crowd in hysterics as De Minaur launches a blistering winner past Van de Zandschulp.

‘We really like that Alex,’ the man cries, sending the Rod Laver Arena into hysterics.

Katie Boutler hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts over at the Kia Arena but has responded very well against Rebecca Marino.

After her Canadian opponent went a game up, Boulter saved a break point before being broken by the world No 98.

But she hit back immediately, with Marino saving a break herself before Boulter turned on the gas to cut her deficit to 2-1.

That was some excellent play from De Minaur.

After fending off two set points he’s totally turned the tide on this second set.

This is becoming a real battle between the two, with Van de Zandschulp matching De Minaur for power.

De Minaur needs to hold this final game to clinch the second set, having gone 40-15 up.

But a few errors are starting to creep in, with the Aussie hitting a shot long beyond the baseline.

It doesn’t matter though, he rattles off a 194km/h ace right down the middle of the court, to hold and win the second set 7-5.

The Aussie tennis great gives De Minaur a fist to the air as De Minaur celebrated wining a second set point.

Earlier today, Hewitt was forced to stick up for his son after the teen, who was knocked out qualifying last week, copped backlash.

Hewitt, who won two slams during his career, addressed speculation Cruz had been handed a wildcard draw because of his father’s surname.

Cruz, 16, was one of four Australians who were given a wildcard to the Australian Open qualifiers this week.

‘Cruz is in these positions because he is a very good, talented young player and one of our best here in Australia,’ he told Channel 9’s viewers on Tuesday.

‘He deserves every opportunity he has got to be there. Some people [online trolls] would like to say otherwise.

One fan in the stands has just had a very embarrassing telling off from the chair umpire here at Rod Laver Arena.

Van de Zandschulp was just about to wind up his serve, when one member of the crowd screamed out ‘I love you Demon!’

Incensed by the screaming, Van de Zandschulp stopped and gave a menacing glare towards the section of the audience where the noise came from.

I have to say the crowd has been fairly quiet tonight compared to the atmosphere inside the John Cain Arena last night for Nick Kyrgios’ defeat by Jacob Fearnley.

Still the chair umpire is not having it. She issues a response over her microphone telling fans that interruptions affect both players and to please remain quiet when they are serving.

De Minaur, meanwhile, has gone 5-4 behind here and needs to win this game to stop Van de Zandschulp from claiming the second set.

At 30-love, the Aussie powers a brutal forehand to the right side of the tramlines to pull himself back into the game.

He follows up with another similar shot, that just lands on the baseline to draw level at 30-30.

But resiliently, De Minaur holds off his opponent’s advances, saving two set points to take the second set to 5-5.

Alex De Minaur nearly hit back at his opponent with a break of his own, but the Dutch star held firm at deuce to deny the Australian.

But De Minaur responds again, serving out to love in the resulting game, showing off his cannon of a serve.

We had anticipated the newly engaged duo of Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur to get underway at the same time, but Boulter’s match has been delayed.

Matteo Arnaldi and Lorenzo Musetti have just played out a thriller at the Kia Arena with Musetti advancing to the next round, 7-6 6-4 7-6 6-3.

Boulter and Rebecca Marino are expected to get underway shortly.

But the Brit, who has been spending some time Down under with her beau, De Minaur, ahead of the championships, has revealed the one thing she doesn’t quite like about being a honourary Aussie.

A slight lapse in concentration perhaps from De Minaur?

He is broken for the first time in this match, with Van de Zandschulp getting a huge break back on his opponent.

De Minaur seemed to lose focus hitting a ball long beyond the baseline.

Van de Zandschulp pulls level at 3-3.

You may have noticed how some players are being announced when arriving on to the tennis court this week at the Australian Open.

Stadium announcers have been referring to the players using pronouns like ‘their or they’.

The move has caught the attention of some commentators, who have called it ‘woke’.

He had to tussle for that one!

Van de Zandschulp survived two break points but De Minaur’s power gets the better of him.

I’ve been impressed by De Minaur’s return game tonight. While he might not catch every shot off Van de Zandschulp’s 210km/h service game sweetly, he’s hitting back well on his opponent’s serve.

Meanwhile, here are the views overlooking Rod Laver right now!

We’ve got a couple of footy legends in the house today.

Brisbane great and former Carlton coach Michael Voss is watching on intently here as De Minaur attempts to break his opponent.

Collingwood ruck Mason Cox is also in the house but an AFL rival is sitting not too far away from him with Bulldogs boss Luke Beveridge also here.

It looked pretty inevitable really. After he took a 4-0 lead De Minaur put his foot on the gas to go 6-1 up.

The world No 8 is looking in brilliant form too. He’s served out four aces already and is has a first service points win of 80 per cent.

It’s gotten a little quiet in here over the last 10 minutes, but one fan has the audience laughing.

‘If you love the Aussie Demon clap your hands,’ he cries as the crowd are lifted again.

It’s not all one-way traffic!

De Minaur had stormed his way to a 5-0 lead here Van de Zandschulp has pulled a game back here, producing a powerful strike that the Aussie just couldn’t control to go 30-love.

He then capitalised on another error from the 25-year-old, who struck his shot wide.

This is his fourth main draw appearance at the tournament, with the Dutch star’s best finish here coming in 2022 when he reached the third round.

His highest ATP singles ranking came in 2022 where he rose to 22 in the world, but has dropped to 82nd in the ladder since then having won 18 and lost 26 matches on the tour last season, while picking up $905,498 in prize money.

In case you missed it, Tennis Australia are running a cartoon stream of the matches due to a broadcasting issue.

And hilariously his match was streamed live on their Wii Sports-esque cartoon stream and showed the Russian’s tantrum earlier today.

Wow that’s 4-0, he’s flying here.

De Minaur’s agility and precision is causing Van de Zandschulp some problems here.

He forces the Duchman to play a shot long over the baseline to win the fourth game to love.

He might be under some pressure this week at his home slam, but he’s looking very composed on the court right now.

We’ve been out celeb spotting this week at the Australian Open and we’ve spotted plenty of stars already.

Rebel Wilson and Dannii Minogue were both in the house on Monday to watch Nick Kyrgios, while I also spotted rugby league legend Willie Mason walking around Rod Laver last week.

A trio of celebs are in the house here!

Bec Judd arrived at the Emirates lounge earlier today, while journalist star Georgie Tunny is also here alongside Rob Mills.

Abby Gelmi also dazzled as she was pictured in the Emirates Lounge earlier today.

De Minaur is off to a solid start here. He clinches the first game wrapping up the first exchange with a serve of 209km/h.

Not his fastest, but his placement is perfect, with Van de Zandschulp unable to counter.

And following on from my earlier post, the chances of local hero De Minaur winning this week are actually better than they have ever been for nearly 43 years!

After Daniil Medvedev got a ticking off on the Australian Open’s cartoon broadcast I thought I’d talk a little more about why Tennis Australia are broadcasting matches Wii Sports-style.

Fans have been left in hysterics at the broadcasts with cartoon characters of some of the world’s greatest players taking to the courts around Melbourne Park to play out in real-time real points from the matches.

According to tennis journalist Bastien Fachan, the issue is because of a broadcasting rights issue.

He wrote on X: ‘The Australian Open don’t own all of their broadcasting rights (fairly common), so they’re live-streaming a Wii Tennis-like version of the matches on YouTube – love this.’

The fans inside Rod Laver are showing their love for Alex de Minaur here, letting out a huge roar for the Australian star.

Alex De Minaur had a huge year in 2024, winning 47 times and reaching the quarter-finals or better at 12 tournaments, while picking up two wins in the Netherlands and in Acapulco.

Dubbed ‘the fastest man in tennis’ De Minaur comes into this week with bags of confidence and is being given the backing of one of his compatriots…

We’re live on Rod Laver right now awaiting both Alex de Minaur and Botic van de Zandschulp.

The atmosphere is building inside the stadium and I’ve had to put my hat and another layer of suncream on because the sun is belting down here inside the stadium

Meanwhile, Katie Boulter and Rebecca Marino are about to play at the Kia Arena.

Here come De Minaur and Van de Zandschulp!

I can barely see from my seat the sun is so bright!

If you hadn’t seen it already, the Australian Open are showing live streams for some of the matches that Tennis Australia do not have the rights to.

But while they’re unable to show real-time footage, they have instead been showing the matches in cartoon vision!

Bizarrely it looks like something out of Wii Sports!

And the tournament has hilariously broadcasted Daniil Medvedev’s tirade at the net earlier today, with broadcasters giving the Russian star a warning!

World No 418 Kasidit Samrej battled hard against Daniil Medvedev today on Rod Laver, and despite losing, he has left a lasting impression on the world No 5.

Medvedev lumped praise on the 23-year-old player from Thailand but also made a slightly bizarre comment after the match.

If he plays like this every match his life can be good. Money, girls, casino… Whatever…

If he plays like this every match, if he doesn’t, then he’s not going to have it.

Kasidit Samrej is only the third player from Thailand to contest a Grand Slam singles match in the Open Era.

He played brilliantly today against Daniil Medvedev this afternoon taking two sets off the world No 5.

The World No 418 picked up three wins on the ITF Tour last year and is a hugely impressing talent that we are sure to see here again in the future.

Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter will get their Australian Open campaigns underway later tonight.

The Aussie is set to take on Botic van de Zandschulp at Rod Laver Arena while the Brit goes up against Canadian star Rebecca Marino.

De Minaur and Boulter dazzled fans at the end of last year announcing that they had secretly got engaged.

But the Aussie copped a stinging reply from Boulter earlier today after a picture of him has been going viral.

Daniil Medvedev has booked his passage to the second round of the Australian Open despite smashing the net at the Rod Laver Arena to bits in his clash against Kasidit Samrej.

It was a tough match for the Russian who went 2-1 down in the match before going on to win 6-2 4-6 3-6 6-1 6-2.

Despite his earlier meltdown, Daniil Medvedev has fought his way back to go 2-2 and has vastly improved striking 44 winners and 22 aces.

But his third-set tirade has left many around Rod Laver and on social media shocked.

‘Not sure that camera will work any more,’ said one commentator after the insane moment.

Meanwhile, grounds staff have been on the court attempting to fix the camera.

Wow! Daniil Medvedev has fully just lost it on Rod Laver!

The Russian star had gone two sets down to his 23-year-old opponent Kasidit Samrej, who is also ranked as No 418 on the ATP Tour.

But during the third set, the Russian’s frustrations got the better of him, with the world No 5 brutally smashing his racket against the middle of the net after losing a point.

He has broken his racket and the camera that is mounted on the middle of the net, which is now not showing any footage!

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and Gael Monfils put on a show for fans currently putting on a show on Court 3!

I can hear the roars going up all the way from the media centre too!

It was Monfils though who would claim the win 7-6 6-3 6-7 6-7 6-4.

Cam Norrie took ill during last-weeks warm-up event in Auckland, with the British star admitting following his defeat by Matteo Berrettini that he had barely practised ahead of today’s match.

I haven’t been able to prepare as well as I could. I’ve been pretty sick in Auckland, then coming here. Just barely practised.

Honestly, I’ve been feeling the ball so well. Pre-season was excellent. It was a bit unfortunate with the timing. I definitely gave myself the best chance. Just hit the wall after like an hour and a bit. I was not able to stay sharp on court.

It’s disappointing. Yeah, It is what it is. Most importantly just to get my health back to 100 per cent and get some rest. Just tough to sustain that today.

Frances Tiafoe shocked some fans yesterday as he appeared to throw up on the court during his first-round victory against Arthur Rinderknech.

He credited the moment to being ‘overly hydrated’ having ‘mixed a lot of electrolytes’ before claiming he hadn’t eaten since 10 o’clock, before going on to play for four hours.

It showed how much of a gruelling sport tennis really is, with pro players placing a huge emphasis on their nutrition and hydration to ensure they perform to the best standards while on the court.

In fact, Emma Raducanu has just revealed what she eats before a match to keep her functioning at the top.

It’s a very early wake-up call. I think for me I struggle to eat when I open my eyes first thing.

I actually was pretty light this morning. I just had some berries and a coffee before I practiced. After practice, I just had toast, like plain toast with honey and a banana. Pure carb-loading.

I couldn’t stomach some rice and salmon. I’ll be sure after this to get my salmon and take in for the day!

Emma Raducanu spoke after her victory on the changes she has made to her service game coming into the Australian Open.

Yeah, honestly I’m not sure what I changed in my serve today. I think it had a mind of its own…

I will be sure to reflect, look at that and come back to you.

Raducanu would serve out 15 double faults and while her first-serve percentage points won sat at a solid 67 per cent, her profitability off her second serve was much lower at 30 per cent.

I think in the first set I was hitting a lot of good first serves. I hit a few aces. At the same time I was hitting a [lot of] double faults.

I think as the balls got heavier it was a lot more difficult. As I think more kept coming it was not easy to refocus but I knew that even if I was down, I have great returns. It was good to be able to rely on other parts of my game today that I know are quite strong.

I’m just very proud that I didn’t let it affect me too much and let the match run away from me.

So, it seemed like Emma Raducanu has made some alterations to her service game coming into the Australian Open this week.

The British star got her tournament off to a flying start earlier this afternoon beating Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 7-6.

While she had to battle hard in the match, the 22-year-old played some of her best tennis to surpass Alexandrova in both tiebreaks.

But after making some tweaks, Raducanu appeared to struggle with her service game, double-faulting 15 times.

Mail Sport’s Matthew Lambert recaps on what was a great start from the British star.

Good afternoon (or good morning if you’re waking up in the United Kingdom)!

It’s a hot day here in Melbourne, it’s 26ºc but it feels way, way hotter out there.

On my travels this morning I’ve seen fans running through sprinklers and long queues outside the peach ice cream stand next to the Kia Arena.

It’s been a busy day on court too!

British fans will be excited to hear that Emma Raducanu has advanced to the second round of the Australian Open, beating Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 7-6.

We’ve also got some huge matches coming your way later today with newly-engaged couple, Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur in action!

First, though, let’s recap on Emma Raducanu’s win from today… here’s the moment she clinched victory!