Australian Open 2015 Schedule: Replay TV Coverage, Live Stream for Day 8 Draw

For a true tennis diehard, messing with one's circadian rhythm is but a small price to pay for the chance to watch the Australian Open live.

Most matches begin late in the evening on the East Coast, with some starting after midnight and concluding in the dead of night. The later rounds have been a tad bit easier on West Coast fans due to the nature of the scheduling, but the best action is still often reserved for the time between the witching and magic hours.

With a number of top-seeded players in action on Day 8, it's worth watching the action on delay. Milos Raonic, Venus Williams, Kei Nishikori and Serena Williams are but a sampling of the elite tennis pros taking the hard courts in Australia on Day 8.

There's a wide-open feel to this tournament in both the men's and women's singles draws, making for an excellent start to the 2015 Grand Slam circuit.

For those on a self-imposed media blackout until they have time to catch up on the action, here's the Day 8 replay info and a spoiler-free look at the matchup to watch from Monday in Melbourne.

Day 8 Replay, Live Stream Info

Replay Coverage: Day 8 match replays are available on demand at WatchESPN

Live Stream: WatchESPN and AusOpen.com have streams available between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. ET. 

Replay Match to Watch: No. 12 Feliciano Lopez vs. No. 8 Milos Raonic

Michael Dodge/Getty Images

The matchup between Feliciano Lopez and Milos Raonic offers fans an intriguing look at two players with plenty in the way of contrasting styles. Lopez is a slender, left-handed player with a strong serve and an affinity for the serve-and-volley strategy, a dying art in elite tennis. The righty Raonic, on the other hand, is a hulking, 6'5" shot-maker with broad shoulders and a powerful serve.

Lopez is an old pro at 33 and a grass-court specialist of sorts although he's proved to be capable on all surfaces through his career. Raonic is an ascendant talent at 24 years old—finally coming into his own—and a player with the potential to topple the Big Four with a group of mid-20s stars that include the likes of Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov and Marin Cilic.

Raonic and Lopez have squared off four times in their careers, splitting them evenly. Lopez won the the last matchup, a three-set win over the Canadian Raonic in the quarterfinal of a 2014 Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto. With a spot in the Aussie Open quarterfinals at stake, expect both players to bring their A-plus games.

Both Lopez and Raonic have made fairly quick work of their foes up to this point, but the former could be on quite the streak of luck when it comes to his draw, per The New York Times' Ben Rothenberg:

One aspect of this matchup to keep an eye on is Raonic's blistering serve. He knocked 22 aces in a third-round win over Germany's Benjamin Becker. He's a strong player who is perhaps emblematic of a rise in players dictating play with big first serves, a trend noticed by Lopez, via Tennis.com's Matt Cronin:

Lee Jin-man/Associated Press

"

You see the average of the players, is between 185 and 180 [KMH]. Everybody became stronger now in the game. Everybody serves huge. Everybody hits the ball with a lot of power. The racquets are so powerful right now. Some courts are fast. So this is the way that the game is going.

"

Of course, Lopez himself is no slouch on the serve. He smashed 19 aces and won 80 percent (51-of-64) of his first-service points in a straight-sets victory over Jerzy Janowicz in the third round, per AusOpen.com. Raonic could force Lopez into more baseline play than he is comfortable with, but the wily veteran has enough in his bag of tricks to cope with the Canadian's power game.

The winner of this contest faces the winner of No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. unseeded Gilles Muller, who are also in action on Day 8. Djoker loves the Australian Open; he's won it four times. However, he should be highly motivated and looking to improve upon his performance from last year, when he lost to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka in the quarterfinals.

Muller, who hails from tiny Luxembourg, has played exceedingly well this tournament but doesn't have the shot-making capabilities to hang with a player of Djokovic's caliber. The winner of Lopez-Raonic will no doubt be hoping for an upset from Muller, but the talented Serbian is the likely prize for making it through what should be a hard-fought match.