What to Watch on Saturday at the Australian Open

Groth, who boasts the fastest serve in tennis, let it be known just as they were preparing to enter the center court at Melbourne Park that he’d never played on the biggest stage at the season’s first major.

On the men’s side, No. 10-seeded John Isner fired 20 aces and 53 winners in a 6-3, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) win over Marcel Granollers, No. 23 Gael Monfils beat fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 and No. 32 Joao Sousa beat Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 7-5, 3-6 6-1. Murray, having faced Sam Groth in the previous round, will now face a different stylistic challenge in round three. Murray, however, excels when he has a target.

Indeed, they were 36 minutes into the struggle before Groth put one cleanly past Murray’s racket, 227kph wide of his forehand in the second game of the second set and he still couldn’t hold.

It temporarily seemed like there might be a game on but Murray instantly recovered his groove as another backhand pass helped him break at 5-4 and take a two-set advantage.

Groth, ranked 67th in the world, lives in Melbourne and was born in nearby Narrandera but the local favourite gave Murray a timely confidence boost before the match, when he revealed Australia’s most famous court would be a new experience for him.

Murray has faced little resistance through two rounds.

The only other Briton left in the singles draw, Johanna Konta, who beat Venus Williams on day two of the competition, also booked her place in the round three with a straightforward win over world number 83 Saisai Zheng of China.

“It’s hard to know as a player whether you’re going to go out there and hit the ball great or not, you just have to try to trust all of the preparation and practice that you’ve done”. So, away from the court, like practising with me, he always said “hello”, he was always very polite and respectful with me since I was a kid.

“He didn’t start serving well but in the second set it became much tougher”. In 2008, he played Marcos Baghdatis in a third-round match that started before midnight and finished at 4:34 a.m. There was still a big crowd in Rod Laver Arena when he won it.

Nevertheless there was still a good atmosphere. However, Murray made very light work of Groth on Thursday, defeating him in about 90 minutes 6-0, 6-4, 6-1.

Ivanovic was leading Madison Keys 6-4, 1-0 when her match was stopped.

He was defeated 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 in his second round match against David Ferrer, Murray’s potential quarter-final opponent.

The report followed an investigation carried out by the BBC and Buzzfeed, which alleged 16 players who have ranked in the top 50 were repeatedly flagged up to the sport’s authorities over suspicion of match-fixing but no further action was taken. But Azarenka believes the big-hitting Osaka, who upset 18th-seeded Elina Svitolina in her Grand Slam main draw debut, has a bright future.

The 28-year-old, five-time major victor is playing her 13th Australian Open since 2003 so she knew what to expect when she lost concentration in the second set despite being up and break and 30-love. “There was a really good atmosphere out there”.

Murray added: “I haven’t personally played a match where I’ve thought something was up. It was pretty loud even for a smaller court”.