Australian Open: Djokovic, Serena keep it quick as sweltering heat plays havoc

Dodig becomes 10th player to retire due to soaring temperatures.

MELBOURNE: Tournament favourites Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams raced into the third round of the Australian Open and out of the heat on Wednesday as controversy over play continuing in scorching temperatures rumbled on for a second day.

Cloud cover and a gusty wind helped keep temperatures just below the peak of 42.2 degrees Celsius they reached on Tuesday, when Canadian Frank Dancevic passed out and accused organisers of forcing players to play in ‘inhumane’ conditions.

Ivan Dodig became the 10th player to retire in the first three days of the tournament, though, when he was unable to complete his match against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur on one of the exposed outer courts at Melbourne Park.



“Today, 30 minutes after the match I could not walk,” Croatian Dodig told reporters. “There were 10 people around me. I was thinking I could maybe even die here. I think we deserve that somebody listens to the voice of the players.”

Djokovic needed 107 minutes to take the second step on the path he hopes will take him to a fourth successive title by thrashing Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-0, 6-4, 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena.

Serena beats heat with ‘Hawaii’ pretension

Serena also hot-footed it into the third round with a one-sided 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Vesna Dolonc, later the American also revealed her own particular visualisation technique for keeping cool.

“I just pretend I’m in Hawaii riding a wave, that’s all I can do,” she said after setting up an encounter with Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova who survived a gruelling battle against Karolina Pliskova, winning 12-10 in the deciding set.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Swiss Belinda Bencic started poorly in her match against Chinese fourth seed Li Na but after losing the first seven games, rallied to force the second set into a tiebreak before losing 6-0, 7-6 (7/5).

Two former grand slam champions who have dropped out of the top 10, Ana Ivanovic and Samantha Stosur, had straightforward two-set victories to set up a third round meeting on Friday, when temperatures could hit 44 degrees Celsius.

Seventh seeded Czech Tomas Berdych was the first man into the third round when he hammered Frenchman Kenny De Schepper 6-4 6-1 6-3.

Berdych said conditions were the hottest he had played in and suggested that if the threshold for stopping matches had not been reached, it was probably set too high.

France’s Richard Gasquet soon joined Berdych by beating Russian Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, 6-4 as David Ferrer’s unrelenting fighting spirit put him in good stead in his match over Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (7/2), 5-7, 6-0, 6-3.

World number eight Stan Wawrinka, playing in the relative cool of the evening on Margaret Court Arena, also needed four sets to get past Alejandro Falla 6-3 6-3 6-7 (7-4) 6-4.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2014.

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