Venus Williams will play Maria Sharapova on ESPN2 and WatchESPN in the third round of the Australian Open presented by Franklin Templeton Investments on Thursday, Jan. 17, tentatively at 3 a.m. ET (midnight PT).  The match will also be featured in the scheduled reair on ESPN2 on Friday, Jan. 18, at 2 p.m.  Williams, the No. 25 seed, is the winner of seven majors, and the No. 2 seed Sharapova owns a career Grand Slam with one at each of the four events.  The two have only faced each other seven times, with the Russian holding a 4-3 edge, including 3-1 on hard courts.

The daily live marathon telecasts continue each night from the summer heat of Melbourne on ESPN2, as well as  with up to seven courts to choose from on ESPN3 starting each evening at 7 p.m.  The schedule continues through the women’s championship Saturday, Jan 26, and the men’s championship Sunday, Jan. 27, both at 3 a.m. with reairs later each day at 9 a.m. and in prime time.  ESPN’s 29th consecutive Australian Open represents the company’s longest uninterrupted professional sports programming relationship.

The telecasts are also available through WatchESPN online at WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2013 on ESPN2 HD

(For these charts, all times are Eastern, and each day “begins” at 6 a.m. ET.

Therefore, the listing Sun., Jan. 20 at 3:30 a.m. ET is actually very late on Sunday night.)

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