She's in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open later this month, and Maria Sharapova made the most of a rare day off on Friday, visiting the National Gallery of Victoria.

MIKE DICKSON IN SYDNEY: Amid the dramatic recent history that Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have at the Australian Open, it is easy to overlook a fifth anniversary taking place.

MARTIN SAMUEL: My grandfather had an unusual take on authority. He thought a desire to be in charge should see that person disqualified. On the subject of VAR, he may well have a point with this.

Maria Sharapova and Eugenie Bouchard saw their matches on Tuesday overshadowed by health concerns caused by 'hazardous' levels of smoke in the air from nearby bushfires.

Novak Djokovic, says the Australian Open in Melbourne may need to be postponed as players continue to struggle to compete due to the smoke-filled air.

The Russian star jumped behind the microphone to provide commentary at the Kooyong Classic, a tournament ahead of the Australian Open, while Dimitrov was on court at the time.

The 32-year-old tennis pro's WTA ranking recently fell to No. 369 following her first-round defeat at the Australian Open 2020

Maria Sharapova has announced her retirement from tennis after winning five Grand Slam titles during her career. She has announced she will be quitting tennis in an interview with Vanity Fair.

The 32-year-old Russian athlete was seen on a hike with two pals in Palos Verdes, California on Thursday. Maria seemed to be in great spirits as she beamed while cradling tiny dog while enjoying breeze.

I have several powder blushers but they are a bit dry looking on my skin and sometimes show up fine lines. Do you know of one that looks dewy? Or should I try cream blush?

My mid to dark brown hair is going grey. It's coloured shades of blonde, gold and chestnut, on an all over dark goldy-brown tint. I would like a more natural look that doesn't show the regrowth so harshly

My formerly normal-sized lips seem to be shrinking a bit and there are visible vertical lines on the lips rather than just on my upper lip

Q Can you suggest a reasonably priced moisturiser for my oily skin? I am Asian, in my twenties

I'm off to for a sea and sun holiday shortly and need a few tips on keeping my coloured hair from drying out and looking like a haystack!

I'm noticing my jawline getting a bit lax with the suspicion of jowls forming and a little pouch under my chin. I would love to stop them in their tracks but not keen on anything invasive

I want to get my ears re-pierced, as the existing holes are too low in my lobes. I have no idea where to go to get them done safely

Each month, I'm trying to make one sustainable, clean, green shift to my beauty regime. Switching to a shampoo bar seemed an easy option. Wrong! My very thick hair absorbs any product like a sponge

Proof positive that Benjamin Britten was the greatest opera composer of the mid-20th century came with this top-class performance of his first great success, Peter Grimes (1945).

My Top Ten this year covers the full range of new festive albums, starting with Old Bing.

The trumpeter Lucienne Renaudin Vary, France's answer in both glamour and virtuosity to our own Alison Balsom, has a new album that's guaranteed to add an extra layer of good cheer this Christmas.

Richard Eyre's take on La Traviata celebrates its 25th birthday with performances through until late March, with four different Alfredos seducing five different Violettas.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason's new album, his second for Decca, is a real curate's egg.

Historically, the list of great British pianists is a sadly short one.

John Copley's classic 1974 production of La Bohème was finally laid to rest in 2015 after 25 revivals.

For many classical music lovers, myself included, Beethoven is the greatest. Even for those who don't rate him the best, it's hard to imagine any but the cloth-eared failing to rank him with Bach and Mozart.

John Wilson's hobby is creating orchestras. He began at college with a small jazz ensemble, which became the John Wilson Orchestra, specialising in music from Hollywood musicals.

Hats off to the little-known Irish composer Gerald Barry, whose late-flowering career (he's almost as old as me!) has produced a generally joyous take on Lewis Carroll's oeuvre to his own libretto.

Sony regularly rush-releases the New Year's Day concert from Vienna, and I sometimes wonder why it bothers. But not this time.

English National Opera is the Flying Dutchman of the operatic world, floating aimlessly around the repertoire, creating chaos most places it alights.

Herbert von Karajan, who died in 1989, shifted 200 million albums - an astonishing figure for a classical musician.

There are several good reasons for seeing this spirited revival of Anthony Minghella's 2005 Madam Butterfly , and one totally compelling one: the Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw.

Hats off to Deutsche Grammophon. Not only is it the producer of the finest complete Beethoven set in this, his 250th anniversary year.

Igor Stravinsky, not a great one for dishing out prizes to his colleagues, declared that Poulenc had the greatest melodic gift of any 20th-century composer.

Georges Bizet was 17, and a student working on a piano reduction of Charles Gounod's symphonies, when he wrote his own solitary Symphony.

Sometimes hype is just that; hype. But occasionally it's true.

We don't see much of Berlin-based Daniel Hope these days, but an album like this shows us what we are missing.

Shostakovich's 11th Symphony here receives a performance of exceptional eloquence from the Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic under their chief guest conductor, the Finn John Storgårds.

The leaked email reveals how Brian Fallon, Clinton's spokesman, told Huma Abedin, her right-hand aide, that the Department of Justice had told him about a court date related to the scandal.

Donald Trump has escalated his bitter battle with the Republican party by launching fresh attacks on the leadership and saying he 'doesn't want their support'.

Clinton and Trump are each at 44 percent in the LA Times survey. Trump’s six point lead evaporated as a video of him making lewd comments about his conduct toward women emerged.

Hillary Clinton now has a nine point lead in the latest Bloomberg Politics poll in the pivotal battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Donald Trump leveled a new attack at Hillary Clinton in Cincinnati, recalling her physical collapse on Sept. 11 in New York. He said she couldn't negotiate with China because 'these are tough people.'

The Fox News poll gives Clinton 45 per cent of the four-way presidential preference vote while Trump has slid to 38 per cent. However Rasmussen showed him clawing back support with 43 per cent.

The survey, which was conducted during the period between October 7 and 13, gave Clinton 44 per cent support from likely voters compared to 37 per cent for Trump.

Two new national polls that dropped today tell different tales, with Donald Trump nipping at Hillary Clinton's heels in one – and her running away with the race in another.

Donald Trump has slipped further in the polls, a survey showed Monday, as he battles to dismiss a series of sexual assault allegations by claiming that the election is rigged against him.

Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by an average of 5.5 percent. But an election forecaster is advising voters to 'hold off on trusting poll-driven proclamations of a Clinton victory just yet.'

On his eponymous radio program Monday morning, Stern said that he was upset that the interviews were being used against Trump and that he himself would never re-release the old interviews.

Assailing Trump, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said, 'This is what losers do. And we're not even going to give it any credit by amplifying it. It's not true. The system is not rigged.'

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are in deadlock over America's swing states, with polls showing hairs-breadth gaps between the bitter rivals weeks before the presidential election.