As it happened: Injured Nadal knocked out; Kokkinakis advances on brutal night for Australians; Swiatek, Tsitsipas, Medvedev, Gauff progress

Mackenzie McDonald has knocked Rafael Nadal out of the Australian Open.

Nadal was clearly ailing after appearing to injure his leg late in the second set, which saw him call an injury time-out and seek treatment.

He battled on, but couldn’t lunge or reach for shots as the 27-year-old American scored the biggest win of his career.

McDonald wins 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

The loss had similarities to Nadal’s Wimbledon campaign last year where he battled through injury to beat American Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals but couldn’t play in the semis due to his injury.

So there you have it. Another long and action-packed day at Melbourne Park has come to an end.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal being knocked out of the contest as early as the third day delivered a shock, while a shrinking pool of Australians have stayed in the mix.

Nadal, suffering from a hip injury, was defeated in straight sets by unseeded American Mackenzie McDonald.

Despite the injury niggling away at his game after a timeout, Nadal played on, saying afterwards: “That’s the sport … just try your best until the end.”

Six Australians were defeated on Wednesday and joined Rafa in exiting the tournament, including John Millman, Rinky Hijikata, Olivia Gadecki, Max Purcell, Aleks Vukic and Jason Kubler.

Meanwhile, Thanasi Kokkinakis only needed five points and a few minutes to win his suspended match against Italian Fabio Fognini.

Rain continued to delay matches until 5pm on the outside courts.

Also on Wednesday, sixth-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime clawed his way back to beat 54th-ranked Slovakian Alex Molcan from two sets down.

Elsewhere, big names such as Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Victoria Azarenka, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev and Jannik Sinner all progressed as seeds Daria Kasatkina and Petra Kvitova fell by the wayside.

Appearing on court on Thursday: Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis will square off against Scottish star Andy Murray in a second-round clash on Margaret Court from 7pm, while Alex de Minaur will play France’s Adrian Mannarino at a similar time on John Cain Arena.

Kimberly Birrell is also set to play Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic on Kia Arena, from 1pm.

Second seed Casper Ruud will take on American Jenson Brooksby on Rod Laver Arena after 12.30pm, Novak Djokovic will return to the centre court to face Frenchman Enzo Couacaud from 7pm and that match will be followed by second seed Ons Jabeur locking horns with Marketa Vondrousova from the Czech Republic.

Doubles matches are also set to kick off from Thursday.

With only a chance of a shower in the morning, the tournament looks to have put the worst of the rain behind it for now. Temperatures should remain mild on Thursday.

American Danielle Collins has fought off a challenge from Czech player Karolina Muchova, beating her in three sets in a hard-fought match that lasted almost three hours.

Collins broke first in the third set, and Muchova broke back straight away. Nothing could split them, which led them to a tiebreaker.

Collins, whose left leg was heavily strapped, prevailed 10-6 as the final set went for 80 minutes.

Collins bt Muchova 7-6 (7-1), 2-6, 7-6 (10-6)

Meanwhile, 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz defeated Italian Lorenzo Sonego on Court Three, in a match that went to five sets.

Hurkacz bt Sonego 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Polish 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz has forced his second-round match into a fifth and deciding set after winning the fourth against Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.

The contest on show court three is now evenly poised at 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 6-3 after three hours and 13 minutes.

Meanwhile, American 13th seed Danielle Collins has broken the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova in the third set to lead 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 3-2 at Margaret Court Arena.

And on show court three, British 11th seed Cameron Norrie is all tied up with France’s Constant Lestienne 6-3, 3-6, 5-5.

Hubert Hurkacz.Credit: Getty Images

Victoria Azarenka is a woman possessed.

After overcoming fellow former champion Sofia Kenin in the first round, the 24th seed has ruthlessly dispatched Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska 6-1, 6-0 in just 57 minutes at Kia Arena.

The result sets up a huge match between Azarenka and American 10th seed Madison Keys in the third round.

Podoroska was her own worst enemy, making four times the amount of unforced errors as Azarenka (28-7) as she was broken no fewer than six times by the 2012 and 2013 Melbourne Park champion.

The Argentinean didn’t bring up one break-point opportunity and was crunched on serve.

Azarenka won 78 per cent of her first-serve points, compared to Podoroska’s 44 per cent, and had a massive advantage in percentage of second-serve points won too (57-9).

Denis Shapovalov is through to the third round after defeating Japan’s Taro Daniel in straight sets.

Taro put up a fight in the second set, which went to a tiebreaker. He also forced the third set into a 12th game, but 20th seed Shapovalov prevailed; winning 7-5.

He will now play either 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz or Lorenzo Sonego in the next round.

Shapovalov bt Taro 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5.

Meanwhile, 13th seed Danielle Collins has hit back to win the next set, after a shaky start against unseeded Czech player Karolina Muchova.

Collins won the second set in 38 minutes, 6-2, after losing the first in a tiebreak 7-6 (7-1).

Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka has quickly taken the first set in her second-round match against Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska 6-1 in just 29 minutes at Kia Arena.

Podoroska was her own worst enemy, tripling Azarenka for unforced errors (15-5) and cancelling out the fact that she almost doubled the 24th seed for winners 7-4.

Victoria Azarenka.Credit: AP

Meanwhile, Polish 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz has a fight on his hands, trailing Italy’s world No.47 Lorenzo Sonego 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-2 in their second-round match on show court three.

And after winning the first set 6-3, British 11th seed Cameron Norrie has been broken in the second set of his second-round match with world No.55 Constant Lestienne and trails the Frenchman 4-3 on show court 13.

Unseeded Czech player Karolina Muchova has wrestled a set from the tournament’s 13th seed Danielle Collins on Margaret Court Arena.

Muchova, ranked 133, nudged ahead during the set before Collins fought back to level the score.

Then Muchova won the first five points of the tiebreak, before winning it 7-1.

The Czech player leads after the first set, 7-6.

Karolina Muchova.Credit: AP

Rinky Hijikata has joined the long line of Australians out the exit door tonight after getting destroyed by third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 in just 92 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.

Hijikata joins Jason Kubler, Olivia Gadecki, Aleksandar Vukic, Max Purcell and John Millman as Aussies who were eliminated from the tournament on Tuesday.

Tsitsipas was clinical, dominating the winners 30-17 and doubling Hijikata for aces (6-3) as the Australian committed more unforced errors (26-17).

The three-time Australian Open semi-finallist broke Hijikata six times and enjoyed a far superior percentage of points won on first serve (79-50) and second serve (67-45).

Tsitsipas will face the winner of the Dutch showdown between Tallon Greikspoor and 32nd seed Botic van de Zandschulp in the third round.

As a Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas enjoys a lot of love in Melbourne and it is certainly reciprocated.

After his first-round match he peppered his on-court interviews with Aussie slang he’d been learning.

“Crikey. It was a ripper ... I was flat out like a lizard drinking,” he said.

Now after his second-round match he said he loved Melbourne so much he was “seriously thinking of getting a home here one day”.

His coach Mark Phillippoussis was the pride of Williamstown so he’ll have a bit of local knowledge on where to buy.

Twentieth seed Denis Shapovalov has narrowly taken a second set against Japan’s Taro Daniel after a tiebreak on 1573 Arena.

The Canadian won the first set 6-3, but Daniel fought back in the second, forcing a tiebreak that was then paused due to rain.

Shapovalov won the set 7-6 (7-3).

Canadian Denis Shapovalov (pictured) is two sets up against Japan’s Taro Daniel.Credit: Getty Images

A journalist accidentally called Thanasi Kokkinakis “Nick” after he beat Fabio Fognini at the Australian Open.