MELBOURNE, Australia – A look at the fourth day of the Australian Open tennis championships Thursday:
Weather: High of 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit). The Extreme Heat Policy was enforced for four hours in the mid-afternoon, with matches suspended on outer courts and roofs closed on the two main arenas.
Attendance: Day session, 33,419; night, 19,807; total, 53,226.
Seeded Winners: Men – No. 1 Rafael Nadal, No, 4 Andy Murray, No. 6 Roger Federer, No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 11 Milos Raonic, No. 16 Kei Nishikori, No. 18 Gilles Simon, No. 22 Grigor Dimitrov, No. 25 Gael Monfils, No. 26 Feliciano Lopez, No. 27 Benoit Paire. Women – No. 2 Victoria Azarenka, No. 3 Maria Sharapova, No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 8 Jelena Jankovic, No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 11 Simona Halep, No. 13 Sloane Stephens, No. 16 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 20 Dominika Cibulkova, No. 25 Alize Cornet, No. 29 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Seeded Losers: Men – No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro, No. 24 Andreas Seppi, No. 31 Fernando Verdasco. Women – No. 32 Magdalena Rybarikova.
Stat of the Day: 63 – number of consecutive matches played by Roger Federer at Rod Laver Arena until his Thursday match at the secondary Hisense Arena.
Quote of the Day: “It was an oven ... it was burning,” Cornet said of the heat.
Playing on Friday: No. 1 Serena Williams vs. Daniela Hantuchova, No. 4 Li Na vs. Lucie Safarova, No. 14 Ana Ivanovic vs. No. 17 Sam Stosur; No. 2 Novak Djokovic vs. Denis Istomin, No. 3 David Ferrer vs. No. 29 Jeremy Chardy.
Forecast on Friday: Expected maximum of 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit), but a late change in the weather is expected to make things cooler for the weekend.
Associated Press
