Tennis fans flocked to Melbourne Park in record numbers on day two but locals didn’t have much to cheer about with only one Australian winner.
A crowd of 81,487 roared through the gates across the Australian Open’s Tuesday sessions to smash the previous day two best of 68,537 set in 2016.
But if not for rising star Ash Barty staging a three-set comeback win, it would have been a miserable day for Aussie supporters with Ajla Tomljanovic, Lizette Cabrera, Destanee Aiava, Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur all crashing out.