Australian Open Day 3: Djokovic and Serena breezes through to the 3rd round

The extreme heat with the temperature hitting over 40 celsius has become the number one challenge for the players in the Australian Open 2014. But there were no major shocks today as the majority of the seeded players were safely through to the 3rd round.

In the Men’s section, defending champion Novak Djokovic made light work of both the extreme heat and Leonardo Mayer as he made it to the 3rd round. Tomas Berdych also won his match against Kenny De Schepper without much trouble in straight sets but there was work to be done for both David Ferrer and Stanislas Wawrinka as they dropped one set each before overcoming Adrian Mannarino and Alejandro Falla respectively. Richard Gasquet also won his 2nd round match against Nikolay Davydenko but Mikhail Youzhny was defeated by Florian Mayer.

In the Women’s section, World No. 1 Serena Williams was able to conserve her energy in the searing heat by defeating Vesna Dolonc 6-1 6-2 while Li Na defeated 16-year-old Belinda Bencic 6-0 7-6. Australian Samantha Stosur did not have to waste much time in defeating Tsvetana Pironkova and Ana Ivanovic made light work of Annika Beck. Sabine Lisicki was the highest seed among Women players to be defeated when she lost to Monica Niculescu in three sets while Daniela Hantuchova played a marathon match against Karolína Plískova before overcoming her by 6-3 3-6 12-10.