SCHEDULE and PREVIEW | 2024 Australian Open Day Five including SWIATEK, ALCARAZ, RYBAKINA and MEDVEDEV

Day Five is upon us as the second round continues at the 2024 Australian Open featuring Iga Swiatek, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Elena Rybakina among those in action and taking centre stage on Rod Laver Arena.

Our preview looks ahead to Day Five including the main matches and storylines to watch as the second round heads towards its conclusion in Melbourne.

After seeing off Sofia Kenin in her opening round, it is the second likely main test for World No.1, Iga Swiatek as the draw on paper gets slightly easier from here on out as she faces Danielle Collins who has form in beating her in Australia.

Back in the 2022 semi-final, Collins thrashed Swiatek en route to being defeated in the final in Melbourne as 27th seed in a landmark run for the American. Since then though they have faced off a myriad of times with Swiatek winning each one. Their last meeting was back in August 2023 in Cincinnati won 6-1, 6-0 by the imperious Pole.

So it is very much anything could happen but it is unlikely to see Collins produce her heroics of a few years ago. Second up in the Day Session is Carlos Alcaraz who will see an opportunity opening up in the draw. Novak Djokovic in particular has not looked 100% so he will be one of the favourites from here looking good himself in his opener and he takes on Lorenzo Sonego in his second tie.

The night session sees imperious Kazakh, Elena Rybakina face Anna Blinkova albeit a lopsided Head to Head as the latter holds the lead albeit they played back in 2017 in St Petersburg so isn't a gauge of the World No.3 now who will hope to follow Aryna Sabalenka in another emphatic defeat. Then Daniil Medvedev continues his campaign against Emil Ruusuvuori.

One of the main outside court ties sees Ajla Tomljanovic face off against Jelena Ostapenko in a return of their meeting from Wimbledon in 2021 after a fiery on court spat which saw the Aussie accuse her of lying. Penko was trailing 4-0 in the tie when she insisted she needed a medical time out and Tomljanovic protested to the chair umpire that she was lying.

They then had a very famous on court spat in which at the handshake, they accused each other of terrible behaviour and zero respect with the words also uttered of being the worst player on the tour. They face off on John Cain Arena in a match that all fans of tennis aggro will want to enjoy.

Elsewhere some of the top ties include Casper Ruud facing Max Purcell, he begins a slate on Margaret Court Arena featuring Jessica Pegula, Holger Rune and Victoria Azarenka. On that John Cain Arena, the aforementioned tie is joined by Alexander Zverev, Daria Kasatkina will face Sloane Stephens.

While Grigor Dimitrov takes on Aussie hero Thanasi Kokkinakis in a back-to-back Aussie feel as the Tomljanovic-Ostapenko match follows. Others on outside courts include Jack Draper facing Tommy Paul, Emma Raducanu facing Yafan Wang as well as Elina Svitolina. Another stacked schedule incoming for Day Five.

1-Iga Swiatek (Poland) v Danielle Collins (U.S.)

Lorenzo Sonego (Italy) v 2-Carlos Alcaraz (Spain)

Night session

3-Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) v Anna Blinkova (Russia)

Emil Ruusuvuori (Finland) v 3-Daniil Medvedev (Russia)

Max Purcell (Australia) v 11-Casper Ruud (Norway)

Clara Burel (France) v 5-Jessica Pegula (U.S.)

Night session

8-Holger Rune (Denmark) v Arthur Cazaux (France)

Clara Tauson (Denmark) v 18-Victoria Azarenka (Belarus)

6-Alexander Zverev (Germany) v Lukas Klein (Slovakia)

Sloane Stephens (U.S.) v 14-Daria Kasatkina (Russia)

13-Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) v Thanasi Kokkinakis (Australia)

11-Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) v Ajla Tomljanovic (Australia)

McCartney Kessler (USA) v Linda Noskova (Czech Republic)

(14) Tommy Paul (USA) v Jack Draper (Great Britain)

(27) Emma Navarro (USA) v Elisabetta Cocciaretto (Italy)

Jakob Mensik (Czech Republic) v (9) Hubert Hurkacz (Poland)

(19) Cameron Norrie (Great Britain) v Giulio Zeppieri (Italy)

(1`2) Qinwen Zheng (China) v Katie Boulter (Great Britain)

Emma Raducanu (Great Britain) v Yafan Wang (China)

(27) Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada) v Hugo Grenier (France)

Alex Michelsen (USA) v (32) Jiri Lehecka (Czech Republic)

Nuno Borges (Portugal) v Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (Spain)

(19) Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) v Viktoriya Tomova (Bulgaria)

Tatjana Maria (Germany) v (26) Jasmine Paolini (Italy)

Arthur Fils (France) v (28) Tallon Griekspoor (Netherlands)

Miomir Kecmanovic (Serbia) v (24) Jan-Lennard Struff (Germany)

Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) v Viktorija Golubic (Switzerland)

(21) Ugo Humbert (France) v Zhizhen Zhang (China)

Varvara Gracheva (France) v Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine)

Arantxa Rus (Netherlands) v Anna Kalinskaya

Oceane Dodin (France) v Martina Trevisan (Italy)

Sumit Nagal (India) v Juncheng Shang (China)