A record-breaking Australian Open crowd is in the offing and it is no surprise given the action on the courts and the theatrics from some of the players as the third round begins on Friday at Melbourne Park.

From the feistiness of Danielle Collins to memories of past rivalries, and on to the emergence of a late-blooming Aussie, there was much to discuss around the grounds of the Australian Open on Thursday as Alex de Minaur continued his march in Melbourne.

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THE ASHES BATTLE BETWEEN THE BASELINES AS THE CROWD ADDS SPICE OFF THE COURT

Crowd behaviour had been a hot topic this week and the discussion surrounding it is certain to be amplified tenfold following the spicy theatrics of former Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins after she dashed Destanee Aiava’s dreams on Thursday night.

The American is a feisty competitor and the antipathy between her and the crowd was evident well before her sarcastic response to the booing she received following her 7-6 (4) 4-6 6-2 triumph. And what a response it was, with Collins revelling as the panomine villain.

She later declared her love for the banter and said the response from the crowd motivated her to produce her best tennis, though she did bow to the caution of the WTA Tour moderator when opting against letting off her steam completely in press.

“I mean, all I have to say is good luck pissing somebody off or getting under the skin of somebody that doesn’t – can I say it? Seriously, good luck trying to get under the skin of somebody that really doesn’t care,” she said.

“I loved it. I’ve been doing this my whole life. I love playing in a crowd that has energy, regardless of what side they’re on. I’m somebody, too, it kind of just motivates me even more. So it’s kind of a good thing, especially when I’m not playing that well.

“So I think it really helped me in the end. Just helped me concentrate more and challenged me at times. (It) pushed me kind of through the finish line.”

English star Jack Draper had a message for the green-and-gold army planning to get behind the local hopeful Aleksandar Vukic at Melbourne Park on Friday night.

The louder, the better. Bring on the banter! And go the Brits.

Having edged Thanasi Kokkinakis in a Wednesday night thriller on John Cain Arena, Draper has already survived one Ashes-style battle between the baselines.

He is well prepared for another and it is not just because Draper, who defeated Alex de Minaur in a quarterfinal of the US Open last September, is motivated to add Vukic to his list of Aussie scalps.

A nod to the Fleet St press for putting words into the mouth of the left-hander in an early morning press conference at Melbourne Park on Thursday morning.

At the tail-end of the press conference, the following question was put to Draper; “Do you want Aussie fans to know the more they shout, the better you’ll play on Friday night? Just say yes!” Draper was asked.

His response; “Yes. Exactly.”

On a more serious note, the behaviour of crowds has been a hot topic again and those on John Cain Arena for the Draper-Kokkinakis classic were admonished several times by the umpire on Wednesday.

Draper said it was probably the most volcanic crowd he had played in front of but that he appreciated the spur it provided him after coming through the battle.

The left-hander refused to divulge specifics other than to say “you can probably imagine” some of the invective directed towards him and delighted late in the match in cupping his ear and giving a bit back to those abusing him.

“Obviously (I was) getting quite a lot of abuse from the crowd in between serves (from) the back of the court and all that sort of stuff,” he said.

“Sometimes you don’t want to sort of rile them or give it back. But to be fair, it gave me energy doing that. There were times where I was down, then I came through a tough game. And I was feeling it a little bit. It gave me energy giving it back a little bit. It’s just a bit of fun.

“They are saying stuff to me. It’s nice to sort of just give it like a bit of an ear or something like that, you know.”

There have been players less enamoured with the behaviour of the crowd, with Draper’s compatriot Harriet Dart among them.

After falling in three sets to Donna Vekic, she likened the antics of the fans at Melbourne Park to those she might experience watching a Premier League match.

“I felt like I was at a football match. Obviously it’s great to have lots of people there watching and everything but I also think there has to be respect towards both players,” Dart said.

“I think a few people were about to be kicked out. I can only really compare it to the Billie Jean King Cup and I don’t even think I’ve had it be like that before.

“I think [the umpire] did as best as she could — maybe there should be a stricter policy in terms of if people are doing something, if they do it more than once they are out, but I don’t make those rules.”

THE LONG ROAD TO A PRIME TIME SPOT

As a teenager, Aleksandar Vukic used to look at the Special Ks with envy, awe-struck as Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis cut a swath through the world’s best junior stars.

The Sydneysider, who will play Draper on Friday for a spot in the last 16, was a junior peer of the high-profile Australians but not in the same class on the court.

He watched their booming serves and better forehands with astonishment. As the world’s biggest brands circled them, Vukic was juggling his studies with his smashes.

At a time when Roger Federer was inviting Kyrgios and Kokkinakis to train with him, Vukic was pursuing universities in the United States in the hope of securing a college scholarship.

But as the Australian Open moves towards the end of the opening week, it is the lower-profile Aussie whose hopes remain alive in Melbourne as Kokkinakis and Kyrgios nurse bodies bearing the toll of more than a decade on the ATP Tour.

Last night, Vukic partnered James Duckworth to a success over the 2022 Australian Open champions, with the Ks calling it quits midway through the second set, which is understandable given Kokkinakis was scarcely able to serve due to his pectoral problem.

After graduating from a specialist school in Sydney, the 28-year-old opted to have a crack at the circuit and moved to Spain, where he was grinding away on clay for hours on end.

It did not suit him and instead he opted to pair his brain with his brawn when accepting an invitation to study at and represent the University of Illinois.

Kyrgios had already reached quarterfinals at Wimbledon and Melbourne Park, and Kokkinakis had enjoyed a centre court outing against Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros by the time Vukic was dashing from the classroom to the courts in Urbana-Champaign in 2015.

But the long road can be rewarding and the late-blooming Aussie has made the most of a multitude of experiences on the road towards playing his biggest ever grand slam match.

“I was still very raw. That was the mindset behind that. I was very invested in school, so this was a different change, where everything was about tennis, the five to six hours a day. It got to me,” he told this reporter a couple of years ago.

“College was unbelievable. Everyone says that about college, that it was the best and will be the best four years of my life. I was training the same as I was in Spain, five to six hours a day, but I was going to class. It was a grind, but it was so much fun.”

The progression of Vukic to a breakthrough point in his career is a reward for the resilience he has shown in working his way through the lower rungs of professional tennis.

After earning All American honours three times in the US, Vukic showed he might have a future on the court when qualifying for the Sydney International in 2018.

The build has been slow and steady from the lowest rungs of the tour through to a prime-time outing on Margaret Court Arena on Friday night at Melbourne Park.

He remembered one 35-hour flight from Uzbekistan back to Australia passed especially quickly as he sat white-knuckled trying to process what he had just witnessed.

“We took a taxi at 1am in the morning to the airport, which was about six hours away,” he said.

“We started slowing down and there was a big queue and I was like, ‘What is going on at 4am in the morning? Why is there traffic?’.

“On the side of the road, there was a white towel, a white sheet, and I am looking at the driver asking, ‘Is that person alive?’ And he is like, ‘Nup’. It was a bit of a shock.

“It was 4am in the morning and I was half-asleep and secondly, it was just so very casual with what was happening. I was heading back to Australia on like a 35-hour flight and I was thinking, ‘Get me home. Please. Quickly’.”

He still chuckles about an experience in qualifying on the way to his first grand slam appearance at Roland Garros back in 2020 when pitted on an outside court.

It was crammed from pillar to post, with fans wearing thick coats and holding umbrellas at a major delayed until Autumn due to the pandemic.

Vukic quickly wised up that it was not he the fans were there to see as he notched what is now clearly a tremendous claim to fame when beating Carlos Alcaraz.

“He was 17 or something and you could tell he was going to be special,” he said.

“There was a lot of hype around him. I actually won that match. I saved a match point there and beat him in the first round. But there was so much hype and … it was obvious something was going to happen. I think two years after that he was world No.1. It is just a crazy rise.”

Alcaraz, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis can still draw a crowd. But on Friday night in Melbourne, it is Vukic the Aussie fans will be roaring on for more.

MEMORIES OF ARGIE-BARGIES OF THE PAST AS THE DEMON PROGRESSES

As Alex de Minaur assessed his upcoming clash against Argentinian Francisco Cerundola, he suspected it could be a fiery affair in prime time on Saturday night.

With his Davis Cup coach Lleyton Hewitt watching on and providing analysis on de Minaur’s 6-2 6-4 6-3 win over Tristan Boyer, it was not a stretch to turn the clock back a couple of decades to his great rivalry with Argentinians.

It is now 20 years since Hewitt reached the Australian Open final when beaten in a high-class four set match by a fellow No.1 in Russian Marat Safin. That headline match remains one of the most watched sporting events in Australian sporting television history.

Earlier that fortnight, Hewitt’s ongoing battle with a band of Argentinians sparked incredible scenes as the Australian waged war with Juan Ignacio Chela.

The dual grand slam champion, who never took a backward step against Argentinian stars including David Nalbandian, Guillermo Coria and Guillermo Canas, enjoyed a particularly spicy rivalry with Chela.

It bubbled over when Chela spat at Hewitt in the fourth set of their third round clash 20 years ago, which led to the former world No.15 being fined by the AO.

The rivalry stemmed from a junior Davis Cup meeting in 1997 in Canada after Hewitt reportedly hung a banner from his balcony that read “Don’t cry for me Argentina” after the nation was eliminated from the tournament.

Hewitt was able to get the better of Nalbandian when winning the 2002 Wimbledon final and his former manager David Drysdale said back in 2011 that the enmity had been enduring.

“It’s a long rivalry through Davis Cups, etc, and obviously they’re not known as the best of friends,” Drysdale said.

The current Australian No.1, while every bit as competitive as the former world No.1 Hewitt, is less prone to engaging in to-the-death rivalries and it is likely his assessment of the Argentinian related more to the quality of his tennis.

“I’ll be ready for a battle,” he said.

“It will be tough. He is a quality opponent, with lots of firepower, great forehand. He has taken some big scalps and hopefully I am not the next one.”

ANOTHER STAR REEMERGES

A day after four-time major champion Naomi Osaka reminded everyone of her talent with a stirring victory over Karolina Muchova, fellow major winner Emma Raducanu served notice that her best tennis probably lies ahead of her with a strong win at Melbourne Park.

Raducanu started the Australian Open dealing with swollen ankles and hands after being bitten by jumping ants.

Pitted against powerful American Amanda Anisimova, who was a teenager when she was beaten by Ash Barty in the 2019 Roland Garros finals and has been back on the scene for a year after a mental health break, Raducanu performed admirably.

A fairytale winner of the 2021 US Open, she absorbed the best the American threw at her in the infancy of the match before turning the second round clash on its head with precise serving, exceptional defence and a resilience when under pressure.

Her deeds there have set up a stellar Saturday night clash with Polish superstar Iga Swiatek in a clash the tennis world will be watching with interest. In a surprise given her nationality, the English star said she felt at home playing in Australia.

“She is a top player. She’s been really consistent over the last quite a few years,” Raducanu said.

“So, I mean, it’s going to be a match for me where I feel like I don’t really have much expectation externally. I think you always have the pressure that you put on yourself to perform to your best ability, which is not really going to change, but that’s every match.

“But I think I’m going to enjoy playing in a great atmosphere. I think the last two matches I’ve had the crowd has been amazing, the support here. I’ve really felt at home. It’s just been a really nice feeling to be a part of.

“I’m looking forward to going out there and testing my game against the best, because ultimately, you play tennis, and you live for these matches. It’s going to be a great buzz of adrenaline.”

There is another watch though. Raducanu required treatment for what appeared to be a hip flexor complaint in the 6-3 7-5 triumph, but said niggles were to be expected after a couple of tough matches to start the Australian Open.

MELBOURNE DELIVERS AGAIN IN RECORD STYLE

After a superb Boxing Day Test between Australia and India drew a record attendance at the MCG, the Australian Open is on track to set a box office mark as it reaches the midway mark of the tournament on the weekend.

An all-time record crowd of 95,881 fans attended the fifth day of the major at Melbourne Park, which breaks the previous mark set on Monday.

It takes the attendance five days into the tournament to 449,070, and this is before the usually manic super Saturday. Adding the “qualifying” week to the tournament, 565,598 fans have been through the gates at Melbourne Park over the first 11 days of the major.

While there will be a drop-off later next week, it is possible the Australian Open will reach the magical million fans milestone it has long aimed for. And Collins, given her love-hate relationship with the crowd, is far from surprised.

“I feel like you could definitely see today just looking around the grounds that there were a lot of people here, more tennis fans coming out to support,” she said.

“I think Australia specifically has a huge tennis fan base. We see a lot of crowds each year. I definitely noticed today just observing from the dining area of everybody walking around. It seems like there were more people than ever before.

“It’s super great for the sport. Obviously this is so important for all of us. It’s a big part of why we’re able to get to be professional tennis players and do this for a living.”