Australian Open 2023 order of play: Day six schedule and how to watch on TV in the UK

British No 1 Cameron Norrie declined to blame a busy off-season, which included an exhibition event in Saudi Arabia, for his early exit from the Australian Open at the hands of emerging Czech player Jiri Lehecka.

Norrie was palpably short of timing and focus in this third-round match. His usual dogged dependability evaporated in a welter of shanked forehand and botched volleys. And with the match flashing by quickly – five sets in just 3hr 12min, which is almost twice the pace that Andy Murray has been playing at – he didn’t even manage to test out 21-year-old Lehecka’s legs.

“I wasn’t really feeling the ball that well since the start of the tournament,” said Norrie after his 6-7, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 defeat. “Yeah, there was too many lapses in concentration.”

Asked whether he had overstuffed his off-season itinerary with exhibition events, Norrie shook his head. “I think it was a lot of fun playing in those events,” he said. “I had a really good pre-season, maybe one of the best ones I’ve ever had. I was playing with the best players in the word to get ready for this tournament.”

But there has been a correlation between those who spent December slogging around exhibition events and those whose bodies have betrayed them in Melbourne – such as Nick Kyrgios, Taylor Fritz, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem.

In Norrie’s case, he has spent the last couple of months flitting around the world like Elton John on his latest tour. He and Kyrgios met up in Mexico in November for a so-called “Tennis Showdown”, and a month later he was in Saudi Arabia (for which he was accused of sportswashing by Amnesty International) to play the Diriyah Cup. Since then, he has fitted in further action in the UAE, Hong Kong, Sydney and Auckland. Only the last two stops were part of the regular tour.

Was it sheer coincidence, then, that Norrie called the trainer to the Kia Arena early in the fifth set? This was certainly a rare occurrence for one of the most durable athletes on the tour. He finished the match with tape around his left knee, though he insisted afterwards that the niggle hadn’t affected him.

“Yeah, obviously been playing a lot,” Norrie said. “We’ve been doing some stuff to try to work on it, but I don’t think it’s anything significant. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t anything too bad. Just double-check that and take an anti-inflammatory to give myself the best chance so I can focus on the tennis.”

Norrie is, to some extent, the victim of his own recent success. A semi-finalist at Wimbledon, and then a superb British team leader at the recent United Cup in Sydney – where he overcame Alex de Minaur, Nadal and Fritz – he has been so consistent over the last year that everyone expects him to beat a player ranked at No71 in the world.

But Lehecka has the bigger game, with a deceptively fiery 135mph serve that puts him inside the 15 fastest servers in this tournament. Norrie had needed three sets to get past Lehecka when they met in Auckland 10 days ago, and that was when he had some form. On Friday, he was finding it difficult to keep the ball in the court, and thus effect his patented boa-constrictor squeeze.

Could Norrie’s inaccuracy be connected to the Dunlop balls being used on the Australasian swing this year? They have come under fire from everyone from Nadal to Murray for being flat and almost pressureless, to the extent that they move slowly through the air and are equally reluctant to take spin. Given that Norrie controls his lefty forehand with lashings of heavy topspin, you might imagine this to be a factor in his alarming tally of 53 unforced errors.

Again, though, Norrie deflected this theory. “I’m never really looking at the ball too much,” he said. “It was great for me in United Cup, great in Auckland, and great here.”

You might have gathered by now that Norrie is not a man for excuses. He prefers to look internally, and his honesty and self-reflection have already helped him to maximise what can often look like a limited game.

His next commitment will be in Bogotá, Colombia, where he will again lead the British team in the Davis Cup. The altitude of 2,500 metres above sea level should suit a man of his extraordinary lung capacity, as long as he can shake off whatever irritating niggles he picked up here.

Latest on Britons Down Under

Norrie’s exit on Friday means Andy Murray and Dan Evans are the only British players remaining in either singles draw.

Evans takes on Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev in the third round at about 1pm local time (2am, GMT) on Saturday. 

Murray, meanwhile, is also due on Margaret Court Arena, albeit around 8am (GMT), against Spanish 24th seed Roberto Bautista Agut.

Australian Open dates 

The tournament started at Melbourne Park on Monday, January 16 and finishes on Sunday, January 29.

How to watch the Australian Open 2023 on TV

In the UK, Eurosport has the broadcasting rights to live action from Melbourne and will show 250 hours of live coverage with Alize Lim, Mats Wilander and Tim Henman leading coverage alongside Barbara Schett and Laura Robson. John McEnroe, will join from New York while Alex Corretja (Spain), Justine Henin (France), Boris Becker (Germany) and Roberta Vinci (Italy) will be part of Eurosport’s localised coverage.

To watch on discovery+, an Entertainment & Sport pass is £6.99/month or £59.99/year. In the US, the tournament is broadcast on ESPN.

Day six order of play

(All times local, +11 hours from GMT)

Rod Laver Arena

11:00: Varvara Gracheva (Rus) v (30) Karolina Pliskova (Cze), Camila Giorgi (Ita) v (12) Belinda Bencic (Swi), Benjamin Bonzi (Fra) v (22) Alex De Minaur (Aus), (27) Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) v (4) Novak Djokovic (Ser), Magda Linette (Pol) v (19) Ekaterina Alexandrova (Rus)

Margaret Court Arena

11:00: Nuria Parrizas-Diaz (Spa) v Donna Vekic (Cro), (5) Andrey Rublev (Rus) v (25) Daniel Evans (Gbr), (5) Aryna Sabalenka (Blr) v (26) Elise Mertens (Bel), Andy Murray (Gbr) v (24) Roberto Bautista Agut (Spa), Rinky Hijikata (Aus) & Jason Kubler (Aus) v (6) Lloyd Glasspool (Gbr) & Harri Heliovaara (Fin)

John Cain Arena

11:00: (9) Nicole Melichar (USA) & Ellen Perez (Aus) v Marta Kostyuk (Ukr) & Elena Gabriela Ruse (Rom), Ugo Humbert (Fra) v (9) Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune (Den), Andre Goransson (Swe) & Marc-Andrea Huesler (Swi) v (14) Andreas Mies (Ger) & John Peers (Aus), Alexei Popyrin (Aus) v Ben Shelton (USA)

1573 Arena

12:00: Sadio Doumbia (Fra) & Fabien Reboul (Fra) v Lloyd George Harris (Rsa) & Raven Klaasen (Rsa), (23) Shuai Zhang (Chn) v Katie Volynets (USA), Linda Fruhvirtova (Cze) v Marketa Vondrousova (Cze), Olivia Gadecki (Aus) & Marc Polmans (Aus) v (4) Ena Shibahara (Jpn) & Wesley Koolhof (Ned), (1) Barbora Krejcikova (Cze) & Katerina Siniakova (Cze) v Linda Fruhvirtova (Cze) & Alison Riske-Amritraj (USA)

Kia Arena

12:00: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) & Elena Rybakina (Kaz) v Latisha Chan (Tpe) & Alexa Guarachi (Chi), (1) Wesley Koolhof (Ned) & Neal Skupski (Gbr) v Petros Tsitsipas (Gre) & Stefanos Tsitsipas (Gre), Jeffrey John Wolf (USA) v Michael Mmoh (USA), Laura Siegemund (Ger) v (4) Caroline Garcia (Fra), Nikola Cacic (Ser) & Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) v (15) Santiago Gonzalez (Mex) & Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra)

Court 3

12:00: Marcelo Demoliner (Bra) & Andrea Vavassori (Ita) v (8) Marcel Granollers (Spa) & Horacio Zeballos (Arg), Moyuka Uchijima (Jpn) & Xin Yu Wang (Chn) v (2) Cori Gauff (USA) & Jessica Pegula (USA), Tommy Paul (USA) v Jenson Brooksby (USA), Shuai Zhang (Chn) & Robin Haase (Ned) v Alana Parnaby (Aus) & Andrew Harris (Aus), Samantha Stosur (Aus) & Matthew Ebden (Aus) v (5) Demi Schuurs (Ned) & Nikola Mektic (Cro)

Court 7

12:00: Anastasia Potapova (Rus) & Yana Sizikova (Rus) v Caroline Dolehide (USA) & Anna Kalinskaya (Rus), (4) Nikola Mektic (Cro) & Mate Pavic (Cro) v Alex Bolt (Aus) & Luke Saville (Aus), Oksana Kalashnikova (Geo) & Alycia Parks (USA) v (15) Claire Liu (USA) & Sabrina Santamaria (USA), Jaimee Fourlis (Aus) & Luke Saville (Aus) v Sania Mirza (Ind) & Rohan Bopanna (Ind)

Court 8

14:00: Olivia Gadecki (Aus) & Priscilla Hon (Aus) v (6) Desirae Krawczyk (USA) & Demi Schuurs (Ned), Ben McLachlan (Jpn) & Yoshihito Nishioka (Jpn) v (3) Marcelo Arevalo (Esa) & Jean-Julien Rojer (Ned), (12) Asia Muhammad (USA) & Taylor Townsend (USA) v Tereza Mihalikova (Svk) & Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Blr), (1) Giuliana Olmos (Mex) & Marcelo Arevalo (Esa) v Latisha Chan (Tpe) & Hugo Nys (Mon)

Court 15

11:00: Nadiia Kichenok (Ukr) & Kimberley Zimmermann (Bel) v (10) Shuko Aoyama (Jpn) & Ena Shibahara (Jpn), Jiri Lehecka (Cze) & Alex Molcan (Svk) v Alexander Erler (Aut) & Lucas Miedler (Aut), Anna Danilina (Kaz) & Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kaz) v Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) & Juan Sebastian Cabal (Col)

What’s the latest news?

Félix Auger-Aliassime, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Jannik Sinner are all through to the fourth round of the Australian Open after coming through their respective third-round matches.

Auger-Aliassime is one of the last players still in the Australian Open to be associated with the docu-series Break Point, thus bucking the trend of the so-called Netflix curse. 

In the women’s singles top seed Iga Swiatek continued her ominously good form with a straight-sets win over Spaniard Cristina Bucsa. 

Coco Gauff, Jess Pegula and Elena Rybakina were also winners on day five in Melbourne, as the majority of big guns in the women’s draw remain in contention.

What is the Australian Open prize money?

The Australian Open total prize pool is $76.5 million, up 3.4 per cent on 2022. The singles champions will each take home $2.975 million, so just over £2.47 million.

Who are the defending champions?

Ashleigh Barty beat Danielle Collins to end a 44-year drought for the home nation by winning the 2022 women’s title. Barty retired shortly afterwards.

Rafael Nadal fought back from two sets down to defeat Daniil Medvedev and win his 21st grand slam title. This year, Nadal was eliminated in the second round by Mackenzie McDonald.

What are the best of the latest odds?

Men’s singles:

• Novak Djokovic 11/8
• Daniil Medvedev 5/2
• Holger Rune 7/1
• Stefanos Tsitsipas 8/1
• Jannik Sinner 11/1

Women’s singles:

• Iga Swiatek 13/8
• Aryna Sabalenka 6/1
• Caroline Garcia 15/2
• Jessica Pegula 8/1
• Coco Gauff 9/1

Odds correct as of January 20