Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid have won their fourth successive Australian Open wheelchair doubles title after they defeated Dutch duo Maikel Scheffers and Ruben Spaargaren 6-1, 6-2 in the final.

The all-British pair were first off the line, storming ahead to a 4-0 lead and eventually landing the first set on the scoreboard. 

They carried their momentum into the second set, pushing ahead for a 5-1 lead before Reid served out the match on the third championship point to mark the British pair's 16th grand slam title together.

World No.1 Hewett is now set to compete in the men's singles final on Saturday against Japan's Tokito Oda.

World No.1 Alfie Hewett is into his third successive Australian Open men’s singles final after defeating Japan’s Takuya Miki. Hewett later made it through to the doubles final alongside British partner Gordon Reid.

Meanwhile, Lucy Shuker and doubles partner Dana Mathewson were defeated in their semi-final tie.

Hewett came out firing in his semi-final match against Miki, outfoxing his opponent to seal a 6-1, 6-1 win.

The 25-year-old now enters his third consecutive final at the Australian Open, where he will take on 16-year-old Tokito Oda of Japan for the singles title on Saturday. The two met last week in the final of the Melbourne Wheelchair Open, where the Brit came out on top in a 6-2, 6-2 win.

Hewett then hit the courts alongside doubles partner Reid for the men's doubles semi-final, which saw the Brits cruise through to their 14^th successive Grand Slam doubles final, after beating the all-Japanese pairing of Daisuke Arai and Takashi Sanada 6-4, 6-4.

They will now face Dutch duo Maikel Scheffers and Ruben Spaargaren in the final on Friday, as they bid to win their fourth consecutive doubles title in Melbourne.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be for fellow Brit Shuker and Mathewson who bowed out of the tournment after a defeat in the doubles semi-final. The British, American pairing faced Dutch top seeds Diede de Groot and Aniek van Koot, where they lost 6-2, 6-1.

Britain’s Neal Skupski lost out in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles and the semis of the mixed, while Alfie Hewett starred with two wins on day 10.

Top seeds Skupski and Koolhof were denied back-to-back Grand Slam finals by Australian pairing, Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler, who continued their incredible run in Melbourne with a 6-3, 6-1 win.

Skupski returned to court later to compete in the mixed doubles semi-finals with Desirae Krawczyk but lost 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 10-5 to Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna.

The reigning Wimbledon champions missed out on reaching a third Grand Slam final together despite recovering three breaks in the second set to level the scores. The British, American duo fell behind 5-1 early in the deciding match tie-break and failed to recover as Mirza’s dream Grand Slam farewell continues.

Wheelchair

Hewett came out on top in the battle of the Brits on Court 7 – defeating doubles partner Gordon Reid 6-2, 6-4 in the men’s singles quarter-final.

The 25-year-old’s quest for a first singles title in Melbourne will continue against Japan’s Takuto Miki.

Hewett and Reid later joined forces to begin their title defence in the men’s doubles and cruised to a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Miki and Belgium’s Joachim Gerard.

In the semi-finals they will take on Japanese team Daisuke Arai and Takashi Sanada – who came through an epic match against Britain’s Ben Bartram and Tokita Oda 6-7(6), 7-5, 10-5.

In the women's doubles, Lucy Shuker and Dana Matthewson made a winning start in Melbourne as they overcame Angelica Bernal and Katharina Kruger 6-2, 6-3 to set up a meeting with top seeds Diede De Groot and Aniek Van Koot.

Reigning champions Andy Lapthorne and American partner David Wagner lost in the semi-finals of the quad doubles to Donald Ramphadi and Ymanitu Silva 7-5, 6

Neal Skupski became the first Brit into an Australian Open semi-final in the mixed doubles.

Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid made winning starts in Melbourne to set up an all-British quarter-final, while rising star Ben Bartram, Andy Lapthorne, Lucy Shuker lost out in the first round.

Skupski and Desirae Krawczyk came from a set down to defeat Jamie Murray and Taylor Townsend 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 in the quarter-final of the Australian Open.

Having brought the second set back from 3-0 down to 3-3, Murray and Townsend had two break point opportunities to take a stronghold on the match, but the American fired wide on both occasions.

A major turning point in the match, Skupski and Krawczyk closed out the second set with three consecutive games and continued their momentum to comfortably win the deciding match tie-break.

In the final four, the two-time Wimbledon champions will face India’s Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna.

Wheelchair

Fresh off the back of retaining his Melbourne Open Super Series title last week, world No.1 Hewett wasted no time in getting his Australian Open challenge underway, defeating Japan’s Daisuke Arai 6-1, 6-0 in the men’s wheelchair singles.

Reid overcame a tough contest against Tom Egberink on Court 5, with the 2016 singles champion beating the Dutch star 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in two hours and 14 minutes.

Hewett and Reid will now face each other in the quarter-finals for a place in the final four.

Wild card Bartram put up a strong fight to recover a one set deficit in his maiden Grand Slam singles clash against Takashi Sanada, but eventually lost out 6-0, 3-6, 6-3.

The 17-year-old will now join up with Japanese prodigy Tokita Oda to mount a challenge in the men’s wheelchair doubles draw.

Lapthorne lost out to doubles partner and world No.4 David Wagner in the quad singles first round 6-3, 6-3.

Shuker was beaten by second seed Yui Kamiji 6-0, 6-0 in the opening round of the women's singles.

Neal Skupski claimed back-to-back straight sets wins to make it through to the quarter-finals of both the men’s and mixed doubles at the Australian Open.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t to be for 2020 champions Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram, who suffered a shock defeat in the third round.

Top seeds and world No.1 duo, Skupski and Wesley Koolhof ,defeated Nikola Cacic and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-4, 6-2 in just an hour and eight minutes.

The British, Dutch partnership didn’t face a single break point in the match, as their quest for a first Grand Slam title together takes them through to the final eight.

Next they will take on wild card Australian team Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler, who knocked out fellow Brit Lloyd Glasspool and Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara in the second round on Saturday.

Salisbury and Ram had match point to beat Hugo Nys and Jan Zielenski in the second set tie-break, but eventually lost out 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-2 in a grueling battle on Court 3.

This is the first time they haven't made the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam since the French Open in 2021.

Mixed doubles

Reigning Wimbledon champions, Skupski and Desirae Krawczyk, came through with an impressive 6-2, 6-4 victory over Australia’s Alana Parnaby and Andrew Harris.

The win guarantees a British player in this year’s semi-finals as Skupski goes head-to-head with former doubles partner and fellow Brit, Jamie Murray, and his American teammate, Taylor Townsend, in the final eight.

It was another successful day down under for Britain's mixed double stars, as Joe Salisbury and Jamie Murray advanced to the third round of the mens doubles and mixed doubles events.

Second seeds Salisbury and Rajeev Ram faced a tough battle against the all-Australian pairing of Alexei Popyrin and Marc Polmans in the second round of the men’s doubles, where they came out on top in a 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-3 win.

They now advance to the third round where they will face Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski in a bid to reach the quarterfinals.

With the scoreboard resting at a set apiece, the match was taken to a decisive set, where it was the reigning US Open champions who found the breakthrough to take a 4-2 lead. Ram and Salisbury remained strong on serve in the third set, clinching 75% of points on their first serve and 89% on their second to help them seal the win on the first match point.

Mixed Doubles

Murray hit the court alongside mixed doubles partner Taylor Townsend for their second round match up against Nikola Mektic and Demi Schuurs, which saw them sail through to the next round after a 6-7(5), 6-4, 10-5 win.

They will now go on to face either Neal Skupski and Desirae Kawczyk or Andrew Harris and Alana Parnaby in the quarter-finals.

The British, American duo took the early lead in the final break tie-break, before Mektic and Schuurs found a breakthrough to level up the scoreboard. However, Murray and Townsend ramped up the intensity to win four consecutive points and close out the match on their first match point.

Andy Murray and Dan Evans both went out in the third round of the Australian Open men's singles after tough losses to Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut and Russia's Andrey Rublev.

Murray’s run in Melbourne came to an end at the hands of 24^th seed Bautista Agut 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-4 in three hours and 32 minutes in front of a packed out Margaret Court Arena.

Evans bowed out of this year's competition after losing to fifth seed Rublev 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 in two hours and 11 minutes.

After a slow start from Murray, coming off the back of over 10 hours on court in the previous rounds, the former world No.1 once again showed his resilience and fighting spirit in another Australian Open epic.

From a set and 4-2 down, coming off the back of Bautista Agut winning 17 consecutive points on serve, Murray got his breakthrough with a break to love and pushed the 24^th seed to a second set tie-break. The Spaniard struggled to close out the big points throughout the contest and missed out on two set points as Murray played arguably his best three consecutive rallies to level the scores.

Murray continued to battle his obvious fatigue but with his opponent having taken the third set, it looked like we might be heading for another five-set marathon as the gutsy Brit broke for the second time in the match to start the fourth. However, once the 24^th seed fired straight back, it seemed like the match might slip away. A pivotal seven point swing in favour of the Spaniard as they approached the business end of the set, gave Bautista Agut the platform he needed to serve out the win.

In the ninth meeting between Evans and Rublev, the world No.6 continued the dominant form that has seen him already knock out former US Open champion Dominic Thiem and world No.46 Emil Ruusuvouri to the loss of just one set.

Crushing breaks at the back end of both the first and second sets put the Russian on the front foot and gave him the confidence to step up the aggression and play more free-firing tennis.

Once Rublev raced to a 3-0 lead in the third set the match was all but settled. The fifth seed racked up a total of 60 winners across the two hours to see out the victory.

Doubles

Top seeds Neal Skupski and Wesley Koolhof battled through a nail-biting second round clash against Greek brothers Petros and Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-6(7) in two hours and 48 minutes.

In the third round they will face either Nikol Cacic and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi or Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

The world No.1 pair had trailed 5-2 in the decisive match tie-break, but showed their experience to win five points in a row to take the lead and closed out the win on their first match point.

Sixth seeds Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara were knocked out by Australian duo Ricky Hijikata and Jason Kubler 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.

British No.1 Cam Norrie endured a third round exit at this year’s Australian Open after a five-set battle with talented young Czech Jiri Lehecka ended in a 6-7(8), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 defeat.

This was the second meeting between the two this year, having faced each other at the ASB Classic where Norrie defeated the world No.71 in three sets.

Little separated the two in the first set, with both Norrie and Lehecka refusing to back down on their services games to force a first set tie-break, where the Brit came out on top.

After the Czech clawed back a set in the second, Norrie appeared to find his range in the third, making only six unforced errors compared to 27 in the first two sets. However, the momentum soon switched around at the start of the fourth, with the Lehecka breaking the Brit’s serve three consecutive times to claim the set.

The 11^th seed fought hard to find a way back in the match after going a double break down, despite looking like he was struggling with an injury. However, the 21-year-old proved to be too strong and powerful for Norrie today as he served the match out to love to clinch the biggest win of his young career.

Doubles

Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara got their 2023 Australian Open campaign underway with a 7-6(3), 6-3 victory over the all-American pairing of Jackson Withrow and Nathaniel Lammons.

The fifth seeds got off to a winning start as they took the reins in the first set tie-break to chalk a set on the scoreboard.

They remained dominant in the second, rallying up a remarkable 94% of first serve points won and breaking their opponent’s serve twice - bringing the match to a close in 1 hour 15 minutes.

The British, Finnish pair will now march into the second round where they’re set to face home favourites Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata.

Meanwhile, Billie Jean King Cup stars Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls made their tournament debut against Czech duo Marketa Vondrousova and Miriam Kolodziejová which sadly finished in a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 defeat.

The all-British pair were first out the blocks, finding the first break of serve on before the Czech’s immediately broke back. Showcasing the determination we’ve gotten so used to seeing, Barnett and Nicholls fought hard to grind out another break and took the first set.

However, the roles reversed in the second with the Czech’s finding the first break of serve to edge an early lead and go on to take set 6-3. With the momentum swinging firmly in Vondrousova and Kolodziejová’s favour, Barnett and Nicholls trailed behind in the third set and eventually went on to lose the match.

Jamie Murray and Michael Venus’ hopes for the title were also cut short after they suffered a 7-6-(5) 6-4 defeat to Gonzola Escobar and Tomislav Brkic in the second round of the men’s doubles.

After a dream debut down under on day four, it wasn’t meant to be for Henry Patten and Julian Cash whose Australian Open journey ended after a 6-4, 7-6(6) defeat against Matwe Middelkoop and Robin Haase.

Mixed doubles

After a win with doubles partner Wesley Koolhof in the men’s doubles, Neal Skupski hit the court once again in the mixed doubles draw alongside American Desirae Krawczyk.

The reigning Wimbledon mixed doubles champions faced the Australian duo of John Peers and Storm Sanders in a tense first round match up, where they prevailed in a 6-7(3), 7-6(12), 10-8 win.

They will now go on to face the winner of Shuai Zhang and Robin Haase vs Alana Parnaby and Andrew Harris.

Meanwhile, Murray was back in action as he teamed up with American Taylor Townsend for the mixed doubles draw where they faced France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Germany’s Kirsten Flipkens.

Murray and Townsend took the first set, with the French, German pairing clawing back to win the second. However, it was Murray and Townsend that triumphed in the tie-break to close in on a 6-2, 3-6, 7-10 win.

Next, they will face the winner of Sam Stosur and Matthew Ebden vs Demi Schuurs and Nikola Mektic.

Andy Murray came from two sets behind to reach third round of the Australian Open for the 11th time in his career, winning 4-6, 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-3, 7-5 against Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Dan Evans joined Murray and Cam Norrie as the second British player to reach the third round of the Australian Open this year after a dominant 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 win against Jeremy Chardy.

Meanwhile, Briton’s doubles got underway with Neal Skupski, Joe Salisbury, Jamie Murray, Henry Patten and Julian Cash all racing through to the second round.

On the women’s side, Heather Watson and doubles partner Danielle Collins were defeated by Marta Kostyuk and Elena-Gabriela Ruse.

Murray stepped out onto the court in what was his 250th grand slam match for a late night match-up against Australia's Kokkinakis.

Despite a sturdy start from the five-time Australian Open finalist, it was the home favourite who pushed ahead to gain a 4-2 advantage over Murray and eventually went on to clinch the first set.

An impressive display from one of the world's best returners saw Murray win 46% of the Australian's second serves, but lost out on the second set in the tie breaker.

Even though his serve was broken twice in the third, Murray played with as much fight and determination as ever to gain both breaks back. Pepped up and ready to tackle anything that came his way in the third set tie breaker, the Brit took the opportunities when they arose and came out on top to chalk a set on the scoreboard.

Murray rode the wave of momentum and went on to take the fourth set 6-3 to level the match to two sets apiece.

With adrenaline and fatigue pumping through his veins, Murray left it all out on the court - breaking the Australian at the last hurdle before launching a backhand winner to secure victory and reach the 3rd round of the Australian Open for the first time since 2017.

Murray will now go head-to-head with Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut on Saturday,

Evans started off strong, immediately breaking Chardy in the opening set before the Frenchman found a way to get things back on level terms at three games apiece. The British No.2 responded well, finding a second break to edge forward and take the first set.

Evans only needed one chance to take the lead in the second set, finding his second break of the match on Chardy’s opening service game. The Brit rode on the momentum throughout the third set, where he racked up an impressive eight break points and closed out the match on the third match point.

Evans will now take his good form into a tough battle against world No.6 Andrey Rublev in the third round. The two have faced each other six times previously, with their head-to-head currently tied at 3-3.

Doubles

With the first round being delayed due to poor weather conditions, the doubles draw finally kicked off on Thursday.

Joint world No.1’s Skupski and Koolhof enjoyed a first round match-up against Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik and Australia’s John-Patrick Smith. Koolhof and Skupski came out firing in the first set, catching an early break to take a 3-0 lead. The British, Dutch duo remained strong behind their serve, winning an impressive 83% of their first serve points and claiming 86% of points off their opponents second serve, eventually helping them clinch the first set 6-1.

Whilst the second set saw Bublik and Smith increase their first serve accuracy, Skupski and Koolhof proved too strong to fight off as they broke twice to wrap up the match in only 53 minutes.

The top seeds will now face Greek brothers Petros Tsitsipas and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round.

Reigning US Open champions Salisbury and Rajeev Ram kicked-off their search for a second Grand Slam title with a win over Constant Lestienne and Marcos Giron.

The second seeds nudged ahead early in the first set, breaking serve at 2-1 before holding their own to gain a 4-1 lead. Salisbury and Ram remained solid in their service games, dropping just two points on their first serve and three on the second to help secure a set on the scoreboard.

Into the second set they went, and three consecutive breaks of serve resulted in the British, American pairing taking a 5-2 lead. Despite Lestienne and Giron fighting off two match points at 5-3, Salisbury and Ram sealed the deal – closing out the match at the third time of asking to advance to the next round where they will face the winner of Marc Polmans & Alexei Popyrin vs Facundo Bagnis & Robert Galloway.

Murray and doubles partner Michael Venus got their Australian Open campaign off to a flying start in their opening round match against Hunter Reese and Cristian Rodriguez.

The first set saw Murray and Venus hit almost double the number of winners (14) than their opponents (8), with the British, Kiwi pairing finding the breakthrough first to edge a 5-3 lead before successfully serving it out for the set.

Murray and Venus piled on the pressure from the get-go in the second set, pulling off back-to-back breaks to come out on top and sail through to the next round.

The 11^th seeds are now set to face Gonzalo Escobar and Tomislav Brkic in the second round.

It was a day to remember for Patten and Cash as they kicked off their debut in Melbourne with a win over Pedro Cachin and Guido Pella.

The all-British pairing – who picked up a record-breaking 10 ATP Challenger titles last year – started off strong, forcing Argentinians to save three break points in the first game of the set. Patten and Cash continued to ask the question of the Cachin and Pella, racking up five break point opportunities before converting on the fifth to clinch the only break of the first set.

The Brits maintained their consistency in the second set, winning 100% of points on their first serve and 63% of second serve points. They ramped up the intensity to seal two breaks and close out the match to gain their first grand slam win.

Patten and Cash will now face Matwe Middelkoop and Robin Haase in the second round.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t mean to be for Watson and doubles partner Collins who bowed out of the first round in a 6-4, 6-2 defeat against Kostuk and Ruse.

Cam Norrie is through to the third round at the Australian Open for the first time in his career after beating Constant Lestienne 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-3. In the next round he’ll take on Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka.

Meanwhile, Emma Raducanu was defeated by seventh seed Coco Gauff in the second round 6-3, 7-6(4) in an entertaining clash on the Rod Laver Arena.

As the clock struck 22:00 in Australia, British No.1, Norrie, stepped out on court to get his second round underway. In the cooler evening conditions, the world No.14 was made to work against the unpredictable variety of the Frenchman’s game and did well to recover three break points at 3-2 down, before winning four games in a row.

In the second it became increasingly difficult for Norrie, as Lestienne continued to mix up his game to inject more pace on the ball, making life hard for the Brit. From 3-2 down, the French star won nine of the next 11 games to not only draw level, but lead 5-2 in the third.

Lestienne had barely missed a shot over the two sets, but faced with the task of closing it out, the errors started to creep up again and Norrie raised his level once again as the match took another huge momentum shift.

Having forced the tie-break there was only going to be one winner with Norrie’s relentless consistency wearing down his opponent.

On they battled into the early hours of the morning, but a costly mistake from Lestienne on a drive volley at 4-3 down, gifted Norrie the break he needed to close the match in three hours and 15 minutes.

Slow starts in both sets for Britain's Raducanu – particularly on serve – gave Gauff the early advantage, but on both occasions, the former US Open champion showed her grit and fighting spirit to come back.

An impressive display on the return, saw Raducanu win over 50% of the American’s second serves, but missed out on key opportunities to break at the end of the first set and with set points to level the match in the second.

The young Brit, however, will be encouraged by the way she played through certain moments in the match. As the battle went on, Raducanu found more consistency in her aggressive baseline hitting and completely took the world No.8 out of her rhythm with Gauff starting to tighten up.

Raducanu dominated the rallies in the second set tie-break but just couldn’t find the killer blow past the impenetrable wall at the other end of the court as Gauff scraped her way to a hard-fought victory.

Great Britain will have three players in the second round of the men's singles after Andy Murray and Dan Evans both came through tough opening round clashes on day two in Melbourne.

Murray stole the headlines on Tuesday, coming through a five-set epic against 13th seed and 2022 semi-finalist Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(6) in four hours and 54 minutes.

The victory marked Murray's 50th singles win at the Australian Open and his first top 20 scalp at a Grand Slam since 2017.

In a match of wild momentum swings, Berrettini looked to have sealed the comeback victory with match point in the decider, but a crucial error from the Italian gifted Murray a lifeline. 

On they went to a deciding match tie-break, where Murray pushed himself to another gear for one final time in the match. Having raced to a 5-0 lead, he held off Berrettini's resurgance and sealed the match with a stroke of luck off the net cord.

In the second round, he will face the winner of Fabio Fognini vs Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Evans came through a difficult battle of his own against Argentina's Facundo Bagnis, clinching a well-earned 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.

Up next for the 32-year-old will be the experienced Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy.

Playing in the blazing Melbourne sun, Evans rescued a break deficit in the opening set to come back and take the lead, before the world No.91 found a way to level the scores at one set each. 

The match was interrupted with the heat reaching above 38 degrees, but once they returned to court, it was all one way traffic for Evans, who only needed one break in both the third and fourth sets, before sealing the win on the third time of asking.

Day one saw straight sets wins for both British No.1s as Emma Raducanu set up a clash with USA’s Coco Gauff and Cam Norrie made the second round at the Australian Open for only the second time in his career.

Jack Draper went toe-to-toe with world No.2 Rafael Nadal on the Rod Laver Arena, but lost out in four sets, while Britain’s Harriet Dart and Kyle Edmund were defeated by seeds.

Raducanu – who was returning from an injury that forced her to retire in Auckland two weeks ago – eased to victory in her opener against Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch 6-3, 6-2.

A nervy start from both players saw five breaks of serve to start the match, but once Raducanu found her rhythm, it was game over for the German. Having seen out the first set, Raducanu settled on serve – making 28% more first serves – and instead piled the pressure on her opponent to break twice and seal the match.

The win sets up an exciting match up against another of the games rising stars and seventh seed, Coco Gauff. The two have never played before, but Gauff comes in having won her first title of the season in Auckland.

Norrie came through with comfortable win over Luca van Assche 7-6(3), 6-0, 6-3 to set up a second round match against either Thiago Monteiro and Constant Lestienne.

The young Frenchman forced the issue in the first set, refusing to let Norrie take an early lead and breaking the Brit twice as he tried to serve it out. Into the tie-break and Assche seemed to be on the ascent with an early 2-0 lead, but Norrie found another gear to take seven of the next eight points.

This took the sting out off the Frenchman’s game as Norrie took complete control of the match, dropping just 12 points in the second set and breaking early in the third to book a place in the second round.

Draper put up a strong fight against 22-time Grand Slam champion and reigning title holder, Rafael Nadal, but eventually lost out 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in three hours and 43 minutes.

Both players tussled for control in the match, as Draper’s free-firing groundstrokes blasted the Brit to two early breaks at the start of the second as he borught the match back on level terms.

On they fought into the third, but Nadal’s experience proved pivotal as he clinched the all-important break in the final game of the set as the young Brit’s backhand sailed wide.

Draper found himself a break to the good in the fourth, but as he continued to battle against cramps, the almost impossible challenge became all the more difficult and Nadal was able to see out a hard-fought opening round win.

Dart missed out on a place in the second round having lost out to 32^nd seed Jil Teichmann 7-5, 6-1.

The British No.2 had held a break lead in the first set and had opportunities to extend her lead to 5-2, but once the Swiss star held off three break points, momentum swung in her favour. From 5-5, Teichmann won eight of the next nine games to claim victory in an hour and 46 minutes.

2018 semi-finalist Edmund bowed out to world No.16 Jannik Sinner in a tough first round match-up, 6-4, 6-0, 6-2.