In Melbourne in January there are two things that supersede sport – Australia Day and the weather! Today’s temperature did not disappoint, reaching 42+ degrees Celsius.
The heat and injuries took their toll on a number of players including Bernard Tomic, Polona Hercog, John Isner, Radek Stepanek, Robin Haase and Julian Reister. Others suffered on court, but managed to finish their matches.
With Tomic having to retire injured, Rafael Nadal didn’t have to sweat too much before advancing to the second round.
The sizzling hot conditions did not seem to bother Roger Federer as he defeated James Duckworth of Australia 64 64 62. Other players to advance included Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Juan Martin del Potro, Gael Monfils, Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov.
Then there’s the Jack Russell
The match of the day was undoubtedly between the unseeded Aussie veteran, Lleyton Hewitt and Andreas Seppi, seeded 24. It took the Italian 4 hours 18 minutes to defeat Hewitt 76 63 57 57 75. Seppi seemed to have the match in the bag by the 3rd set, but Hewitt had other ideas and fought back to force a 5th set. The humdinger continued but the Italian eventually did to Hewitt what he had done to him in sets 3 & 4 – remained focused, did not panic and took advantage of Hewitt’s mistakes.
Hewitt’s fans need not despair though as he will be teaming up with retired player and Davis Cup captain, Pat Rafter to play doubles tomorrow. Rafter accepted a wildcard invitation to partner his good friend. The pair will meet Eric Butorac (USA) and Raven Klaasen (RSA) in round one and there’s no doubt that they will have some competitive fun on court.
In the Ladies draw, Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki, Simona Halep, Jelena Jankovic, Maria Sharapova and Sloane Stephens all managed to brush of the heat and advance to the second round.
South Africa’s Ladies hopeful Chanelle Scheepers went down in two sets to Yvonne Meusburger of Austria 67 46
Image courtesy of the Australian Open Tennis Tournament.