10:20 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com When Aslan Karatsev takes the court on Thursday against world No. 1 Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open (3:30 a.m., ESPN/ESPN App), he will make history as the first man in the Open era to make the semifinals in his major debut and as the lowest-ranked player to reach that

6:25 PM ET MELBOURNE, Australia — Tennis fans will be able to return to the Australian Open starting Thursday after the Victorian government announced the easing of its recently implemented COVID-19 restrictions. The state was placed into a snap five-day “circuit-breaker” lockdown last Friday following a series of virus outbreaks in Melbourne’s suburbs that took

12:00 PM ET When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tom Brady walloped the Kansas City Chiefs to earn Brady his seventh Super Bowl ring, it prompted a series of “Is Brady the GOAT of all GOATs?” conversations. Most of those greatest-of-all-time discussions ended, or should have, upon remembrance that Serena Williams exists. Like Brady, Williams

10:09 AM ET Manoj BhagavatulaESPN Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka won their respective quarterfinals at the Australian Open on Tuesday to set up a blockbuster semifinal. On the men’s side, Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev continued his dream run with a win over an injured Grigor Dimitrov, while Novak Djokovic edged Alexander Zverev to book his

11:31 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com Jessica Pegula surprised even her coaches with her quarterfinal run. It was the 2005 Eddie Herr International Junior Championship and the 12-and-under field included Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Ajla Tomljanovic and Eugenie Bouchard. Pegula hadn’t played in many tournaments, so no one knew how she would handle the pressure competing

1:12 PM ET MELBOURNE, Australia — The grimace on Novak Djokovic‘s face after slipping on the white ‘MELBOURNE’ lettering behind the baseline at Rod Laver Arena was enough to suggest the world No. 1’s chances of defending his Australian Open title had just taken a serious hit. In the third round at Melbourne Park on

9:32 PM ET Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia — Jessica Pegula‘s first victory over a top-10 opponent earned the 26-year-old American her first trip to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament. The 61st-ranked Pegula, whose parents own Buffalo’s NFL and NHL franchises, held on to beat No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4, 3-6,

11:00 PM ET ESPN News Services MELBOURNE, Australia — Daniil Medvedev has added the Australian Open to his list of major quarterfinal appearances and stopped the run of 192nd-ranked American Mackenzie McDonald. The No. 4-seeded Medvedev needed just 1½ hours to stretch his winning streak to 18 matches with the 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 victory at

5:00 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com As a smiling Serena Williams made her way to the net after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in three hard-fought sets Sunday in the fourth round of the 2021 Australian Open, 18-time major champion Chris Evert seemed in awe over what she had just seen. “Is this the next level of women’s

8:50 AM ET Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia — Eight-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic beat Milos Raonic in four sets to advance to the quarterfinals and register his 300th win in a Grand Slam match. Top-ranked Djokovic is just the second player to reach the 300-win milestone after Roger Federer. Djokovic hurt a stomach muscle