Linda Pearce is the Chief Tennis Writer and general sports reporter for The Age. She writes about a range of sports, including football, netball, and gymnastics. Linda has twice been named Australian tennis writer of the year.
A "banged-up" Nick Kyrgios has admitted his issues are mental as well as physical, while taking responsibility for an ill-advised approach to the off-season he believes contributed to a controversial Australian Open loss to Andreas Seppi.
Another bizarre performance from Nick Kyrgios in just his second tour-level match since returning from an ATP ban following the Shanghai Masters has raised further queries over his temperament and emotional state. Kyrgios lost 1-6, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7-1), 10-8 to Italian veteran Andreas Seppi, but that was just a fraction of the story.
The last time there so many Australians still in the Australian Open's second round, Daria Gavrilova was a nine-year-old living in Russia.
Alex Bolt has earned enough money in the past week to avoid a return to Murray Bridge fence-building for a while.
For a tantalising moment Sam Stosur led 2-0 against Heather Watson, but it wasn't to be.
The youngest player in the Australian Open main draw showed enough to suggest that a grand slam match win may not be too far distant.
With a combined ranking of 637th and an average age of 18.5 years, maiden Melbourne Park match wins by Ash Barty and Jaimee Fourlis gave Australia an encouraging glimpse into the future of the local women's game. It is, despite debutante Destanee Aiava's ambitions having fallen slightly short on the opening day, an unexpectedly sunny view.
Bernard Tomic has responded to the queries over his Australian Open preparation with a 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 thrashing of Thomaz Bellucci that counts as the most emphatic, in a scoreboard sense, of his 65-match grand slam career.
Destanee. There is a story in the name. Had to be. "The truth is, yeah, people have a lot of questions about that," says Rosie Aiava, the mother and coach of the 16-year-old Australian who who will make her grand slam debut as the youngest player at next week's Australian Open.
Alexander Zverev, all 198 gifted, confident, composed centimetres of him, is strolling down a hallway with a Tennis Australia staffer, wondering out loud why a couple of local journalists would want to do this interview. We could joke we're planning to make him a star. Might have, actually. Except that Zverev already has that route well-covered.
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