Three minutes a day, knowing about tennis in the world. Hello fans, today is Tuesday, January 14, 2025, and welcome to the afternoon newsletter brought to you by Home of Tennis.

This morning, Beijing time, the third day of the 2025 Australian Open tennis season began. In the games that have ended, the four Chinese players who have played have achieved two wins and two losses. Among them, the first brother Zhang Zhizhen fought hard in five sets, and was defeated by Danish rising star Rune 6-4 3-6 4-6 6-3 4-6, and unfortunately did not qualify.

Wang Xiyu overcame the fluctuation of the second set and defeated Austria's Grabhel 6-1 7-5 to win the Australian Open for the first time in three years, becoming the second Chinese player to reach the second round of the Australian Open after her first sister Zheng Qinwen. Wang Yafan also showed tenacity, fighting her opponent in three sets to defeat Hungarian Bondar 3-6 6-3 6-4 to claim her first win of the new season and successfully pass the first round of six consecutive Grand Slams. Next, she will face the No. 9 seed, Russia's Kasatkina. Another Chinese player, Zheng Saisai, lost 1-6 6-7 to Russian E-Andreeva to reach the first round.

In yesterday's contest Beijing time, Chinese player Yuan Yue lost 4-6 6-4 3-6 to Russian star Pavlyuchenkova, stopping in the first round of the Australian Open for the third consecutive year and suffering eight consecutive defeats in the main draw of the Grand Slam. Teenager Shang Juncheng retired from the tournament after trailing to Spain's Fokina 6-7(1) 2-5 due to foot pain.

After the game, Xiao Shang said that the problem of his feet was more troublesome. "Since coming to the Australian Open, my feet have been hurting, I can barely walk after wearing tennis shoes, and I don't know why I didn't have this problem when I was in Hong Kong, but when I got to the Australian Open, I had this problem as long as I wore tennis shoes. It is mainly concentrated on the side of the bone on the outside of the right foot. The stinging pain in this place made my whole foot weak, and it hurt a lot when I pounced and hit the ball. I'm still talking to the team about what the problem is because I haven't had a physical injury for a long time and I think it was a surprise for me because all of a sudden I don't know what caused it. "I hope Shang Juncheng's foot injury will heal soon!

We'll keep an eye on the rest of the action. The three favorites in men's singles, Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic, who played yesterday Beijing time, all played steadily and all won to advance. Among them, Sinner defeated Chilean Jarry 7-6 7-6 6-1; Alcaraz beat Kazakhstan's Shevchenko 6-1 7-5 6-1; Novak Djokovic overcame American teenager Basa Valedi 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2. Homegrown Kyrgios was knocked out 7-6(3) 6-3 7-6(2) by Englishman Fearnley. No.10 seed Dimitrov of Bulgaria retired due to injury.

Other winners to advance were Paul, Draper, Tiafoe, Koda, Baena, Thompson, Cazo, Aliassime, Bonds, Burges, Duckworth, Kokkinaguis, Marosang, Mensik, Yoshihito Nishioka and Vukic.

Women's Singles: Two-time champion Naomi Osaka of Japan defeated France's Garcia 6-3 3-6 6-3 to face Czech Republic's Mukhova in the next round. Swiss star Bencic got off to a flying start with a 6-3 7-6(6) win over Latvia's Ostapenko. World No.2 Swiatek beat Czech Siniiakova 6-3 6-4 to qualify.

Other debutant winners were Fletcher, Tomjanovic, Dart, Potapova, Sigmund, Niemeier, Kostyuk, Mertens, Pegula, Collins, Svitolina, Dolehide, Christian and Bronzeti. German veteran Sigmund will face China's first sister Zheng Qinwen in the second round. In a contest that ended this morning Beijing time, British rising star Raducanu narrowly defeated Russian Alexandrova in a double tiebreaker and passed the first round.

Finally, let's guess and recognize. The picture below is of a player in a match. Can you recognize who she is without prompting?

In the last guess, the golfer gave the correct answer. That's right, the person in the picture is the Belgian star Mertens.

(Source: Tennis Home Author: Maverick)