Eagle-eyed Melbourne locals swear black and blue that each year in January, the Serbian makes his way to a particular place in the Royal Botanic Gardens for a rendezvous with a root or two.

Turns out, the rumours are true.

“It is true, it is true,” admitted Djokovic after his second round win over Aussie Alexei Popyrin.

“There’s one particular tree that I’ve been having (a) special relationship with, so to say, in the last 15 years.”

The 24-time grand slam champion has long marched to the beat of his own drum and tree hugging, it would seem, is one of his many eclectic interests.

Djokovic hinted as such prior to this year’s Australian Open, revealing he had visited the Royal Botanic Gardens for the past 15 years “just grounding, hugging trees, climbing trees and stuff”.

After his match against Popyrin, the 36-year-old let the tennis world in a little closer.

“I love every corner of (the) botanical gardens,” he said.

“I think it’s (an) incredible treasure for Melbourne to have such a park and nature in the middle of the city.”

The gardens are a valued shared space of the Australian Open host city – the stage on which Djokovic has won a record 10 titles.

But he would prefer to keep the identity of his conifer companion a secret if possible.

“That particular tree, I cannot reveal which one. I’ll try to keep it discreet for myself when I’m there to have my own time,” smiled Djokovic.

“I like to ground myself and connect with that old friend.”

What is it about that particular tree?

“I got connected with that tree,” he said.

“I just liked it. I liked its roots and the trunks and branches and everything. So I started climbing it years ago. That’s it. I just have a connection.”

– Callum Dick

11.55AM: STAR SLAMS FANS OVER ‘DISTURBING’ DRUNKEN HARRASSMENT

Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has slammed Australian Open fans after ‘disturbing’ harassment included the star being meowed at during her second-round loss.

Pavlyuchenkova was defeated in straight sets by Paula Badosa on Wednesday on the newly introduced ‘party court’ at Melbourne Park.

With a two-storey bar built into one of the grandstands of court six, fans have the opportunity to sink beers, with music blaring during play, without missing out on any of the tennis action.

The intention was to create a raucous party atmosphere, but the result – in Pavlyuchenkova’s case at least – has been much more sinister.

“It was super loud, like in the restaurant basically, people talking and eating and drinking. I don’t know if they even watched the match,” Pavlyuchenkova told English newspaper the Independent.

“There were a couple of guys, I think they got drunk and they started to scream and meow (at me), I think maybe because I have this tattoo on my leg (which reads meow) or just because of course they had some drinks and so it was really disturbing.

“It was not nice to be honest. I was really annoyed at the start of the match. I have no problem playing on the outside courts, but this one was special in terms of the noise and also the court.”

11.30AM: DEMON FOE’S FATIGUE CONCERNS

A path to the Australian Open quarter-finals is now wide open for Alex de Minaur after the Aussie No.1 drew another unseeded opponent for his third round clash on Friday.

Italian qualifier Flavio Cobolli is no easy beat, as evidenced by his upset five-set victory over No.18 seed Nicolas Jarry in the first round.

But de Minaur has already dispatched one Italian young gun and is feeling daisy fresh after breezing through his opening two rounds in a total time of just 3 hours 55 minutes.

The world No.10 has spent the least amount of time on-court of any male player into the third round – a disappointing statistic for Aussie fans but great news for the man who holds the hopes of a nation in his hands.

His opponent Cobolli, meanwhile, has spent almost as much time in the heat of battle as anyone, putting in a cumulative 7 hours 16 minutes through two gruelling wins.

“I need to rest,” declared Cobolli after his win over Kotov.

“Now I have a big match against Alex … I have to stay (at) 100 per cent, so now I need to rest.

“He (de Minaur) is top 10 now. I know he is a big talent.

“I have to also talk to my team because I need some advice. I know it’s tough, but I can do it.”

11.00AM: FIESTY TENNIS FEUD SET TO REIGNITE

Ajla Tomljanovic has been warned to expect ‘a bit of biff’ when she resumes her spicy rivalry with Jelena Ostapenko this evening.

The pair have history, dating back to a spiteful 2021 clash at Wimbledon, and will be doing battle for a spot in this year’s Australian Open third round.

And Todd Woodbridge gave a hint at what the Australian star might be expecting later today.

“Ajla is one of the nicest people (and) I’m not saying Jelena is not but that’s the type of thing that Jelena will create,” Woodbridge said on Channel 9 after vision of their 2021 blow-up was shown.

“She likes a bit of biff on courts, win at all costs.”

Ostapenko infamously labelled Tomljanovic the “worst player on tour” as part of a heated exchange following the Aussie’s 2021 third round victory at the All England Club.

On that day, Tomljanovic led Ostapenko 4-0 in the deciding third set when the Latvian star called for a medical time-out.

Tomljanovic felt her opponent was faking the injury to stop the Aussie’s momentum after she had won seven games on the bounce, but her protest to the umpire went unheard.

She would go on to win the final set 6-2 but when the two approached the net to shake hands, Ostapenko took aim.

“If you think I am faking, you can talk to the physio,” she said.

Tomljanovic replied: “I hope you feel better”, to which Ostapenko responded: “Your behavior is terrible. You have zero respect.”

The Aussie later labelled Ostapenko’s behavior “disgraceful”.

Tomljanovic says there is no bad blood between the pair as the two prepare to reignite their fiery rivalry in the second round of the Australian Open.

“No, I really don’t think so. What happened happened,” Tomljanovic said

“I have respect for her as a player. What happened, that was just in that moment. I just reacted. We never spoke about it.

“Yeah, we’re both going to be competitive. That’s for sure. I do think at least from my side I respect her as a tennis player, yeah. In that moment, I wasn’t happy.”

10.30AM: KYRGIOS OFFERS TO ‘SORT OUT’ NOVAK HECKLER

The Nick Kyrgios-Novak Djokovic bromance continues to blossom, with the Australian star offering to defend the world No.1’s honour after a nasty clash with a member of the Melbourne crowd.

The pair have both have their battles with crowds over the years, and Kyrgios jokingly offered to take up the fight for his friend after Wednesday night’s ugly scenes.

Djokovic, after being baited throughout the match by hecklers who he said were shouting between serves, snapped in the fourth set and told a fan to ‘come and say that to my face’.

In a light-hearted post-match interview with broadcaster EuroSport, who Kyrgios has joined for commentary during the tournament, Djokovic reiterated his displeasure with the crowd interaction before Kyrgios offered to sort it out for him.

“Feeling mixed emotions. Not a great atmosphere for me to play in,” Djokovic said.

“(You have to accept it and go with it…

“Kygs – did you like that exchange? Where I asked the heckler to come and show me.”

Kyrgios responded: “I’m ready. Let’s do WWE in the crowd. I’ll jump in for you, I’ll go first. I’ll get that guy out of here!

“If you want me to jump into the crowd and sort him out, I’ll do it for you bro. I got your back 100%.”

10.10AM: AUSSIE GUN’S CLASSY ACT

– The Sun

Jordan Thompson showed his class with a brilliant-but-rare gesture of sportsmanship.

The Aussie star, 29, was playing in front of his home crowd in the Australian Open second round against Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas, 25, was serving for the third set at 5-2 when he missed his first serve at 30-15.

However, as the Greek seventh seed was preparing to take the second, a seagull flew into the Margaret Court Arena and circled around the stadium.

The bird did not take a perch on the court like on the same court on Monday – causing play to be halted briefly – but it did force a delay of around 70 seconds.

As the gull flew around causing havoc, the crowd laughed but the exasperated players shook their heads in disbelief at the disturbance.

So when the bird eventually exited, Thompson should have been ready to take advantage of a nervy wait for Tsitsipas’ second serve.

However, the 29-year-old Sydney star held up his index finger to his opponent – indicating that he was happy for Tsitsipas to have another first serve, essentially telling his opponent to restart the point after the interruption.

The umpire could not have awarded a let so it had to be done by a generous act of kindness from Thompson – who needed to break back twice to salvage the third set.

In the end, though, 2023 runner-up Tsitsipas grabbed the opportunity with both hands as he boomed down an ace to make it 40-15 then sealed the third set at the first time of asking.

9.50AM: FORMER WORLD NO.1 ESCAPES PRISON

Former world No.1 and four-time Grand Slam winner Arantxa Sanchez Vicario was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for concealing assets to avoid paying a debt to a bank, the Spanish courts said on Wednesday.

Sanchez Vicario, 52, and her ex-husband Josep Santacana were also ordered to pay 6.6 million euros to the Luxembourg bank with which they ran up the debt that they tried to avoid paying.

Santacana, who managed Sanchez Vicario’s accounts, was given a longer sentence of three years and three months in prison, Catalonia’s High Court said in a statement following the trial in Barcelona.

Three other defendants were sentenced to one year and three months in prison, plus a fine.

Sanchez Vicario won three French Open titles as well as the 1994 US Open, spending 12 weeks as world No.1 in 1995.

She was also twice a finalist at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

9.30AM: MYSTERY SURROUNDS NOVAK ILLNESS

Novak Djokovic said an angry altercation with a fan may have helped get him over the line during a testing second-round encounter at the Australian Open against home favourite Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday.

The world number one showed his trademark mental strength to face down his inspired opponent, prevailing 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in more than three hours.

It followed a gruelling first-round match on Sunday, when he was kept on court for more than four hours by teenager Dino Prizmic, admitting afterwards he was “a bit under the weather”.

It is the first time since the 2018 US Open that Djokovic has dropped sets in both the first and second round of a major.

The Serbian got drawn into a testy exchange with a spectator on Rod Laver Arena early in the fourth set on Wednesday.

“There were a lot of things that were being told to me on the court… I was tolerating it for most of the match,” he said.

“At one point I had had enough, and I asked him whether he wants to come down and tell it to my face.

“When you confront somebody, unfortunately for him, he didn’t have the courage to come down.

“That’s what I was asking him. If you have courage, if you’re such a tough man, tough guy, come down and tell it to my face, and let’s have a discussion about it.”

There was speculation that Djokovic’s health was the source of a second straight below-par performance from the 10-time Australian Open champion – with the star seen carrying tissues onto the court.

The top seed was asked whether the argument had fired him up.

“Maybe that was needed,” he said.

“I don’t know. Look, I don’t want to be in those types of situations. Yeah, I was flat I guess emotionally.

“Game-wise I was quite flat for some part of the match, end of second set, most of the third set.

“Maybe that was needed for me to be shaken up a bit and start to find the kind of intensity on the court that I needed to have all match.”

9.00AM: STATS THAT SHOW MAX CAN GIVE STAR RUUD SHOCK

Max Purcell wants to put on his own show at this year’s Australian Open.

But not in the doubles format where the larrikin Aussie stirred up Nick Kyrgios after losing the Australian Open final to Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis amid some fireworks two years ago.

Purcell said the atmosphere was over-the-top in the decider as the “Special K’s” brought the energy to lift the trophy.

Kyrgios labelled Purcell, 25, a “donut” amid a testy spray on social media in the aftermath.

But on Thursday it will be Purcell’s time to shine as the mullet-wearing Sydney-sider attempts to put more controversy behind him with another major upset win over No. 11 seed Casper Ruud.

Purcell toppled him in August last year at the Cincinnati Open in the biggest win of Purcell’s career.

And Ruud has a history of botching games he should win considering his run last year which saw the Norwegian lose 13 of his 23 matches to players ranked outside the top-50.

When Ruud isn’t switched on against a lesser opponent, he is vulnerable.

8.40AM: TENNIS WORLD MOURNS SHOCK DEATH

To some sad news from overnight, respected English tennis writer Mike Dickson died at the Australian Open.

The 59-year-old, who had been the Daily Mail’s chief tennis writer for 17 years and had travelled the world covering sport for 38 years, died suddenly while covering the tournament.

Tributes poured in from around the world for the legendary journalist, which you can read more of here.

8.20AM: AUSSIES IN ACTION ON DAY TWO

Alex de Minaur and Storm Hunter are already through to the third round after dominant victories on Wednesday.

Who could join them today? There’s a trio of Aussies in action on court throughout the day with an eye on the $255,000 payday that a second-round victory brings.

First up will be Max Purcell as he faces a difficult challenge in the form of Norwegian 11th seed Casper Ruud, while later in the afternoon Thanasi Kokkinakis will look to ride a wave of home support at John Cain Arena against Bulgarian 13th seed Grigor Dimitrov.

That match precedes the jewel in the night slot, with Ajla Tomljanovic resuming her feud with fiery Latvian star Jelena Ostapenko.

Originally published as Australian Open Day 5 Live scores, schedule, order of play: Novak Djokovic rumour, mystery illness