Organisers of the Australian Open are bullish that the event will start and finish on time after the smoke haze relented on Thursday in Melbourne.

MIKE DICKSON IN MELBOURNE: Roger Federer resurfaced at the Australian Open - and it was not the usual early season celebration of the sport's highest profile athlete.

BORIS BECKER: Tennis players are superstitious characters who have a feel for where they are, and in Novak Djokovic's case you can tell that he is instantly comfortable in Australia.

MIKE DICKSON IN MELBOURNE: Maria Sharapova's precipitous tumble down the rankings continued after she was bundled out of the Australian Open first round by Donna Vekic.

MIKE DICKSON IN MELBOURNE: Sportsmail's tennis correspondent Mike Dickson rounds up some of the things you may have missed from day six in Melbourne.

MARTIN SAMUEL - CHIEF SPORTS WRITER: She isn't on the payroll, but if any athlete has publicly verified the immense benefits of meldonium, it is Sharapova.

World tennis has united to take a pointed swipe at the French Open, as the whole spring clay-court season was formally abandoned.

The days of Paul Jubb having to forego his Wimbledon prize money are over, now that he is formally leaving college in America to turn professional.

EXCLUSIVE: Dan Evans will team up with Kieron Vorster, a no-nonsense South African whose clients have included ex-top-10 player Wayne Ferreira and ex-Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.

New Year's Eve has been and gone but it seems no one has told Ashton Irwin.

5 Seconds Of Summer star Luke Hemmings was spreading the Christmas cheer at Sydney airport on Thursday.

 5 Seconds of Summer frontman Luke Hemmings just celebrated his 23rd birthday, taking to Instagram to thank fans for the sweet messages

The 37-year-old British TV personality shocked The Masked Singer panelists while revealing she was Ladybug on Wednesday's episode featuring guest Triumph, The Insult Comic Dog.

All four members of the Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) grew-up Down Under. 

His official spokesman said today that he was receiving 'updates on the coronavirus response' and spoke to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, yesterday.

The Prime Minister has spent a fortnight at his country retreat, Chequers, after being hospitalised with coronavirus.

The Prime Minister has been informed of the proposals for matches to be played behind closed doors. And Mr Johnson sees the resumption of live sport as key to boosting the moral of the nation.

Mr Cummings' name was on a leaked list of members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) as far back as February. 

The Labour leader has written to the Prime Minister to urge him to hold an 'adult conversation' with Britons to spell out what they are likely to face next.

Ministers have ordered production of up to 50 million new immunity tests as part of what experts hope will be a 'game-changing' development in the battle against Covid-19.

Today guidance drawn up by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and the shop workers' union Usdaw was released to help shops prepare for the reopening of the UK's high street stores.

San Francisco ended its lockdown after just a month of closing public gatherings and ordering members of the public to wear masks. As a result, its case and death count more than doubled.

The Prime Minister ditched Zoom despite appeals from advisers to avoid appearing in person and walked confidently into a packed cabinet room for his 9.15am meeting on Monday.

Slides displayed at the daily Downing Street briefing held by Matt Hancock showed that it is now saying there must be no second peak 'that overwhelms the NHS'.

Mr Khan warned he might take the step as Boris Johnson's Government continued to insist that the evidence of their effectiveness was 'weak', despite strong steps taken elsewhere in the world.

Standing in for Boris Johnson at PMQs, First Secretary Dominic Raab was berated by Labour's Keir Starmer for refusing to trust the public with an exit strategy.

Boris Johnson previously said he would 'almost certainly' take time off when fiancee Carrie Symonds gave birth, but No10 has signalled he will not go on leave until later in the year.

The Prime Minister now has at least six children, yet has not officially confirmed the exact number after leading a tangled love life that has seen him married twice.

The Prime Minister is expected to set out his latest thinking on social restrictions this evening when he leads the daily Downing Street press conference for the first time this month.

Prof Neil Mortensen of the Royal College of Surgeons, pictured, warned that Covid-19 has not been defeated as his one third of his members complain of shortages in PPE.

Ministers have warned lockdown may need to remain for months until the number of new cases falls below 1,000 per day after Professor Chris Whitty said a second peak could be worse than the first. 

With the birth of his son in the early hours of this morning, Boris Johnson becomes only the fourth Prime Minister to welcome a baby to Downing Street. Here is what family life might look like for them.

The Mail on Sunday has learnt that Carrie Symonds chose a picture that deliberately did not show the baby's face and will shun the path taken by past PMs who had babies while in Downing Street.

Boris Johnson is hoping to put teachers on three weeks' notice to re-open primary schools in England to all pupils as soon as next month (pictured, St Mary's Primary in Chippenham).

Selectively lifting lockdown measures could lead to resentment and anger among left-behind groups, an 'alternative SAGE' panel of experts warned today.

Boris Johnson was warned by his own Tory MPs today that prolonging the UK's coronavirus lockdown could result in a 'tidal wave of human misery'.

The deputy chief medical officer for England, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam ,said there remained 'challenges' to be overcome before the ticklist could be completed.

In the UK there are two main contenders in the vaccine race: a team at the University of Oxford, and another at Imperial College London.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis spoke out as Professor Neil Ferguson was removed from all advisory positions after allowing his lover to visit him at his London home during the lockdown.

Bond aficionados will know that early in each story comes an inaugural meeting between hero and foe. A chance encounter over highballs, perhaps, or a high-stakes hand of chemin de fer.

The world's media has lined up to savage Britain's coronavirus response this week after the UK's death toll surpassed Italy's to become the worst in Europe.

Emergency planners have already been warned London's transport system could be overwhelmed by demand when the coronavirus lockdown is eased in some form.

Commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the Second World War ending in Europe are taking place across the country in line with 'social distancing' guidelines.

A plan for the phased reopening of schools is expected to be announced by Boris Johnson when he unveils his lockdown exit strategy on Sunday.

Professor Robert Dingwall said Britain had 'completely lost sight' of the true nature of the disease because 'mostly it isn't' killing people.

The PM is expected to recommend people wear them in the office, on public transport and when shopping despite not making them compulsory in England.

Garden centres will be allowed to reopen next week under Boris Johnson's plans to ease the lockdown.

Boris Johnson's plan to ease the UK's coronavirus lockdown will see people urged to cycle to work, firms told to provide staff with face masks and garden centres allowed to reopen from Wednesday.

GARY NEVILLE: On Monday night, Sir Alex Ferguson would have celebrated with his title-winning team and enjoyed the evening. But on Tuesday night, he'd have been watching Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in Europe and he will have thought: 'Right, that's where we're going.'

Fern Cottage in Port Isaac, Cornwall, doubles as the surgery in ITV drama Doc Martin. The two bedroom detached stone cottage with modern furnishings is available for holidaymakers to rent.