Kyrgios and Djokovic in charity clash on Friday

Nick Kyrgios and Novak Djokovic will meet in a charity match at Rod Laver Arena on Friday, January 13 to raise funds for the Australian Tennis Foundation.

It will be their first meeting since their Wimbledon final last year and Djokovic’s first match in Melbourne since winning the Australian Open 2021 title.

Kyrgios leads their head-to-head record 2-1, winning both of their previous hard-court meetings.

The Arena Showdown is the finale of the Australian Open’s Perfect Practice series, which takes place at Rod Laver Arena each afternoon this week.

Perfect Practice will be played under match conditions, with umpires, ballkids and electronic line calling.

Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev, Coco Gauff, Maria Sakkari, Jessica Pegula, Stan Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem, Taylor Fritz, Alexander Zverev and more are all looking forward to hitting Rod Laver Arena to play under match conditions before the Australian Open main draw starts on January 16.

The current line-up is as follows:

Monday 9 January
4.15-5.30pm: Denis Shapovalov (CAN) v Holger Rune (DEN)

Tuesday 10 January
6.45-8.30pm: Coco Gauff (USA) v Jessica Pegula (USA)

Wednesday 11 January
1.00-2.15pm: Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) v Christian Garin (CHI)
2.15-3.30pm: Novak Djokovic (SRB) v Daniil Medvedev

Thursday 12 January
3.00-4.15pm: Alexander Zverev (GER) v Dominic Thiem (AUT)
4.15-5.30pm: Aryna Sabalenka v Maria Sakkari (GRE)
5.30-6.45pm: Stan Wawrinka (SUI) v TBC
6.45-8.00pm: Rafael Nadal (ESP) v Hubert Hurkacz (POL)