Barty leads star-studded Rod Laver field

Friday, 24 January 2020:

ASHLEIGH BARTY
ASHLEIGH BARTY


Ashleigh Barty will fly the flag for the Australian women when she takes on newcomer Elena Rybakina, with an Open fourth-round berth up for grabs.

The elimination of fellow local hopes Ajla Tomljanovic, Priscilla Hon and Arina Rodionova at the Australian Open on Thursday left world No.1 Barty as the only local remaining in the women's singles draw.

Rybakina, the 29th seed from Kazakhstan, has made comfortable progress in her first appearance at Melbourne Park and hasn't dropped a set through her opening two rounds.

Barty and the 20-year-old have never played before.

Seven-time champion Serena Williams follows Barty on to Rod Laver Arena where she will face Chinese No.1 and 27th seed Qiang Wang.

In a star-studded affair on the main court, second seed Novak Djokovic then takes on Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka.

Defending women's champion, Japan's Naomi Osaka, opens the night session, up against American teenager Coco Gauff before Australia's John Millman meets 20-time major champion Roger Federer.

Millman is looking to repeat his remarkable upset of the Swiss master at the 2018 US Open and says he'll relish his underdog status.

"Regardless of the score at the end of the day, I'll go out there and leave it all out there. If lightning strikes twice, I wouldn't say no to it," Millman said.

The winner is guaranteed an unseeded fourth-round opponent - American Tommy Paul or Hungary's Marton Fucsovics on Sunday.

The Queenslander has been impressive in his two wins to date over Ugo Humbert and Hubert Hurkacz but Federer was flawless in his second-round demolition job on Filip Krajinovic.

Other matches of note on Friday include Greek hope, sixth seed Stefan Tsitsipas, up against Canadian veteran Milos Raonic while seventh-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova has a third-round clash with Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.






AAP