JOY BLOG

17 Jan 2014

Australian Open 2014 – Day 4

The hottest topic of day 4 was again the heat itself. When temperatures went into the 40s for the third consecutive day at Melbourne Park, the extreme heat policy was put into place after Varvara Lepchenko took a medical time out for heat exhaustion and then lost her match. All matches except on centre court and Hisense were stopped momentarily till it cooled down.

According to the rule players have to finish their set before they go off court, which could be trouble in the case of Maria Sharapova vs Karin Knapp, as they went to 10/8 in the third set. winner Maria Sharapova agreed that it could create a problem . She also said players would like to be kept more in the loop with the weather policies at grand slams.

Once Joe Wilfred Tsonga got out of a tight first set he smoothly sailed off court right before play was called off. Then 17 year old Aussie Thanasi Kokkonakis was lucky enough to play under the air conditioned roof on Rod Laver, but had to play number one seed Rapha Nadal. Nobody expected Thanasi to trouble Rapha on court, but he managed to hit winners and serve aces on the big stage against a big name player. After the match Rapha said he would be a star of the future.

18 year old nick kyrgios played an epic 5 setter against the Frenchman Benot Paire on Margaret Court Arena that went late into the night. He won the first two sets but then seemed to cramp up. he was still thrilled to push the 27th seed to the edge.

American Sloane Stevens was down and almost out in her match with Ajla Tomljanovic , but dug deep to pinch the 3rd set. It was a bit scary for the feisty American, facing the crazy Melbourne weather full of lightening. It seems she can’t get through a match without causing some kind of stir

Roger Federer has been tennis loyalty for so long, he hadn’t played on Hisense arena for over a decade, but it was actually a nice change for him. Rog is now one of the most senior guys on tour, but he still feels he can physically keep up with the younger guys.

The biggest upset on day 4 was out on court 2 when the unseeded Roberto Bautista Agut knocked out 5th seed Juan Martin Del Potro at 1am. The Spaniard couldn’t believe what he has achieved in a grand slam.