On-site reporter Matt Tewhatu shares his most memorable moments from the Australian Open grounds on Saturday.

Mixed Bag for the Americans

The weather finally relented as Melbourne Park played host to kids’ tennis day. And, while there were some excited youngsters with tennis racquet in hand, there were some equally excited adults as the final round of qualifying got underway. A Grand Slam appearance check for at least $32,000  and a chance to show their stuff on the big stage awaited the day’s victors. 

Day three would have been an exciting day for American tennis fans with eight American players making it through to the third and final round of qualifying. As they leave Melbourne Park on day four, however, they will feel slightly deflated as only three Americans qualified for the main draw of the Australian Open, starting Monday.

On a day where cooler temperatures meant more comfortable on-court conditions, some players were, unlike the previous three days, forced into long and sapping duels. Ultimately it would be the players who could adjust the fastest who would find themselves playing in the main draw next week. Unfortunately for the American women, it was the men that seemed to be able to make this adjustment as they were the only ones that recorded victory. Among them, Denis Kudla, Rhyne Williams and Wayne Odesnik won entry into the Australian Open.

Odesnik's victory was the match of the day as he won 8-6 in the third set. In an up-and-down encounter, he found his shots when it mattered as he recovered well from an extremely poor second set. On the back of a high first-serve percentage and a game that at times, the crafty lefty eventually had too much class for Spain's Adrian Menendez-Maceiras.

On the other hand, Americans Victoria Duval, Madison Brengle and Irini Falconi on the women's side, and Daniel Kosakowski and Alex Kuznetsov among the men, could not find the game to match their opponents as they looked drained by the heat from the previous three days.  Still, all of those hard-luck losers deserve credit for surviving in the difficult conditions as long as they did.

Birds’ Eye View

Talk filtering through the media as well as the players is that the courts at Melbourne Park are much faster than in previous years. This means that the players who are arriving fresh from their midweek tournaments are scrambling to register practice time before the tournament starts on Monday. Considering this development, there are a plethora of practice sessions to observe.

The player on the men's side of the draw who impressed on the practice court today was Grigor Dimitrov. Although Dimitrov until now has failed to reach his potential in any large tournaments, he looked in fine touch and left nothing on the court as he hit with Frenchman Michael Llodra. While questions still remain about Dimitrov’s movement, his practice session suggested that he is not short of confidence coming into his first-round match against American lefty Bradley Klahn.

A player on the women's side who equally impressed today was Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens. Suffering a poor third-round loss to Spain's Garbine Muguruza in Hobart, Flipkens showed signs that she was adapting well to the faster courts at Melbourne Park as she practiced with Croatia's Ajla Tomljanovic. Flipkens faces a tough first-round match against popular Brit Laura Robson.