Day 4 was just what this year’s Australian Open needed with some fantastic matches from both draws and bucket loads of drama.  I felt the day earnt a whole post to itself so here are my attempts to try and consolidate what happened on a rather epic day in Melbourne.

TFF Dream Team Update: Werrahesse-team goes top of the league with SA23 in 2nd place and Wild Briar Village in 3rd

The weather

Every Grand Slam seems to have talking points attracting headlines completely separate from the actual tennis.  Last year’s Wimbledon had the slippery grass, the US Open was once again dominated by the on-going saga of wet weather and no roofed courts, and this year’s Australian Open is all about the heat in Melbourne.  The extreme heat policy came into operation today as common sense finally prevailed.  I think it has been a bit of a shambles and they only seemed to call it today because of the pressure they had received by players and the media.  It was just as hot on Wednesday.  Personally, I think different people have various tolerances to the heat and it has no relation to fitness.  Tomorrow is going to be just as hot so it will be interesting to see how the organisers deal with it.

Sharapova survives Knapp

The extreme heat policy may have come into force during Maria Sharapova‘s match with Karin Knapp, but they still had to finish the set they were playing, another rule that seems pathetically ridiculous.  Sharapova needed 3 hours and 28 minutes to overcome a tremendous effort from Knapp, who had been a set and a break down.  Both players put in exemplary efforts as Sharapova prevailed in unbearable conditions, 6-3 4-6 10-8.  There is no doubt Sharapova was incredibly patchy in this match although as she so often does, she got the win.  Normally, a match like this is actually quite beneficial to a top seed. Last year, Sharapova strolled through the tournament and when faced with her first tough opponent, she crumbled to Na Li in the semi-finals, 6-2 6-2.  I think competitive matches like this, if you come through them, are great for finding form and it will help Sharapova’s chances as long as she can recover physically.

Maria Sharapova

DelPo gone

I was gutted to see Juan Martin del Potro go out today although his opponent, Roberto Bautista-Agut played a blinder by all accounts.  Dominating from the back of the court and recovering from a two sets to one deficit, Bautista-Agut beat Del Potro, 4-6 6-3 5-7 6-4 7-5.  I am not really sure happened what happened with DelPo today, but it was a second successive Slam that he was knocked out in the second round.  More startingly was the tweet below from Juan José Vallejo of The Changeover.  I didn’t expect Del Potro to have a fantastic tournament and had him out to Nadal in the quarters.  He’s never done great down under although I did not expect this to happen today.  He did win Sydney, but this is another example that playing the week before a Slam is not always the most wise move.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis out with their heads held high:

Nick Kyrgios was fantastic today for two sets as he produced some brilliant tennis to win two tiebreak sets against Benoit Paire.  It was unfortunate that his level of match fitness and an injury prevented him from pulling off the upset win.  I have to give credit to Paire though, who I thought would crumble and burn in the third set after wasting numerous chances to close out the first two sets. If anyone watched his performance in the Paris Masters last year against Pierre-Hugues Herbert, you’ll know why I thought this! He proved me wrong today and although helped along by Kyrgios, he managed his emotions well in the final three sets against a passionate home crowd.  Thanaki Kokkinakis also put in a very respectable performance as he went up against Rafael Nadal, who came through, 6-2 6-4 6-2.

Five setters galore:

It was gone midnight in Melbourne and along with the two five setters discussed above, Marin Cilic and Gilles Simon, and Fernando Verdasco and Teymuraz Gabashvili were deeply embroiled in tough matches that went the distance.  I still cannot work out Simon won! This is the guy who the the media keep telling us was on crutches on Saturday, but he has now won back-to-back five setters spending 8 hours and 29 minutes on the court.  Verdasco losing to Gabashvili was equally shocking and I did read that the Spaniard hit a game of double faults.  This now means Roger Federer, who was in majestic form in defeating Blaz Kavcic, will now play Gabashvili.  Federer is all set for a potential 4th rounder with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.  Federer has been great so far, but he has not been tested by his opponents at all.  I wonder if this could go against him if he does meet Tsonga.

Gilles Simon

Sloane survives:

Sloane Stephens had another dicey match on Thursday and once again, her fighting instincts came through as she woke up in time to defeat Ajla Tomljanovic in 3 sets, 3-6 6-2 7-5.  It was a match full of momentum changes as Stephens won seven straight games in the second and third sets after Tomljanovic had taken the first set.  They had to stop because of rain and lightning with Stephens leading at 3-0 in the third set.  Tomljanovic returned with her mojo and won the next five games to go up 5-3.  Unfortunately the Croatian did get a little tight as she double faulted on break point at 5-4 although most of the credit should go to Sloane, who played a terrific return game.  She now plays Elina Svitolina in the third round and should fancy her chances of a rematch with Victoria Azarenka in the last 16, which would be a fascinating encounter.

Sloane Stephens

What a day!