Tennis Today: T365 goes live, Nole goes home

Shahida Jacobs

In Tennis Today, we go live with our brand spanking new live centre, take a look at Rafa’s two uncles, and bring you the controversy from the tennis world.

What’s on the site
First of all, if you haven’t already noticed, our live score centre is now, erm, live. Check it out.

In a tale of two uncles, in the one corner Rafael Nadal had uncle Toni the tennis coach and in the corner other it was Miguel Angel Nadal, ‘The Beast of Barcelona’.

Novak Djokovic is unfortunately looking into the abyss of another injury layoff after his elbow injury flared up in his fourth round loss to Hyeon Chung.

Chung’s round one victim Mischa Zverev is now in hot, and expensive, water with the Australian Open officials who have fined him for being “unprofessional” as he withdrew from that match.

First lady into the semis at the Australian Open is Elise Mertens, who stunned Elina Svitolina on Tuesday, 6-4, 6-0.

Did you catch all the action from Day Eight in Melbourne? Nope? Well we have the stills for you.

What’s in the news
Tennys Sandgren has caught the attention of tennis fans around the world with his fairytale run in the Australian Open, however, he’s also making headlines for other less savoury reasons.

And don’t blame the coach, or lack thereof, for Nick Kyrgios’s troubles as Lleyton Hewitt reckons his tournament wasn’t as bad as the disappointed Aussie public may feel right now.

“Coming into the Australian summer there’s so much pressure and expectation when you’re the No.1 Australian coming in and I think Nick has handled it a lot better this year than he has in previous years,” said Hewitt.

“That comes with maturity and the experience and being in that situation and learning from things he might have done last year as well. There’s a lot of positives to take out of this summer for Nick.”

In fact Goran Ivanisevic believes Kyrgios will break into tennis’ top-five sooner rather than later.

The praising continues with Kyle Edmund’s coach impressed with his player’s forehand and mental strength.

“You must believe you can do it in tough situations, serving out sets and matches. He has done that three times here,” said Fredrik Rosengren.

“These last three matches were maybe matches he should win, and this can be even tougher when everybody is saying, ‘Great draw, you make the quarters,’ and he knows he has a great chance.

It was all about handling the pressure.”

What’s on social media
When you produce things like this, then you deserve to beat a six-time Australian Open champion.

Murray, the other Murray, summed Hyeon Chung’s performance perfectly.

Brad Gilbert was also impressed…

Victoria Azarenka may be on the sidelines for the moment but she’s still training hard – doing it the “hill climb” way.

https://twitter.com/vika7/status/955558923263619073

And here’s another mom getting support from the great Billie Jean King…

What’s on TV
Australian Open
It is quarter-final time and the two big matches feature Grigor Dimitrov vs Kyle Edmund and Rafael Nadal vs Marin Cilic. The women’s draw features Carla Suarez Navarro vs Caroline Wozniacki and Elise Mertens vs Elina Svitolina.

07:00-14:00 (Tuesday morning)
LIVE – BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

0:00-11:30 (Tuesday morning)
LIVE – Eurosport 1

07:00-14:00 (Wednesday morning)
LIVE – BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

0:00-11:30 (Wednesday morning)
LIVE – Eurosport 1

* The BBC Sport website will stream live radio and TV highlights

Related Articles