Australian Open comes under fire from Donna Vekic's coach over controversial scheduling of women's matches ft. Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka

Donna Vekic's coach Pam Shriver has slammed the Australian Open's scheduling of its women's matches, most of which have been slated around noon. Shriver's comments came based on the order of play for Sunday, January 19, when the fourth-round matches will be played.

Interestingly, none of the four women's matches have been scheduled for the evening and are all set to be played from 11:30 am onwards in the peak Melbourne sun.

Along with Vekic, the scheduling affects all the tournament's top players including top seed Aryna Sabalena, third seed Coco Gauff and 11th seed Paula Badosa.

The heat in Australia has been excruciating, with Frances Tiafoe even vomiting on the court due to the heat earlier this week.

Taking to social media platform X, Shriver questioned the rationale behind the scheduling of the women's matches. She wrote:

"What is going on with AO scheduling? Is it a race to get women’s matches out of the way as early as possible on all courts?"

Here's what the Australian Open women's schedule for Sunday looks like: Aryna Sabalenka plays Mirra Andreeva at the Rod Laver Arena at 11:30 am, followed by Coco Gauff's match against Belinda Bencic not before 1 pm.

Over at the Margaret Court Arena, Badosa begins her fourth-round clash against Olga Danilovic around 1 pm. Donna Vekic, coached by Shriver, will play the second match at the John Cairn Arena, not before 12:30 pm, against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

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Donna Vekic's performance at the Australian Open 2025

Donna Vekic at the 2025 Australian Open. Source: Getty

Donna Vekic has enjoyed a good outing at the Melbourne Major, easing her way into the fourth round. She earned a smooth straight-sets win over Diane Parry in the first round and then got the better of Harriet Dart in the second. This was a tricky match for Vekic as she came back from a set down to clinch a 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory.

Her third-round clash against 12th seed Diana Shnaider went down to the wire. She won the first set on the tiebreaker 7-6 (4) but lost the second set tiebreaker 6-7 (3). She dug deep in the deciding third set to pocket it at 7-5 and advance to the fourth round.

Up next for Vekic is Pavlyuchenkova, an opponent she has not beaten yet. She first lost to the Russian when they met in 2023 and their last encounter was at the 2024 Australian Open, where Pavlyuchenkova snapped up a 6-4, 6-4 win.