Melbourne: Top-ranked Andy Murray and Angelique Kerber fought their way into the second round as tournament favourites struggled in hot conditions on day one at the Australian Open on Monday.
As temperatures topped 32 Celsius (90 Fahrenheit), Murray came through a two hours, 47 minutes test against Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 7-5, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.
He fared better than women’s fourth seed Simona Halep, who was the tournament’s first major casualty, and Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic, who were both taken to five sets.
Kerber, defending a Grand Slam title for the first time, laboured past Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 in an unconvincing performance in the evening session.
Earlier, players draped themselves with towels packed with ice on a sweltering afternoon. Temperatures are set to rise further on Tuesday to a sizzling 38 Celsius.
“I keep coming back to try,” said Murray, who has lost a record five Australian Open finals without ever lifting the trophy.
“I’ll keep doing that until I’m done. But I still feel like I got a few years left to try and do it. Hopefully it will be this year.” Russian teenager Andrey Rublev comes in his way in the second round.
Firebrand Rublev, 19, was one of two young Russians to enjoy impressive opening victories on Monday.
The qualifier, the son of a professional boxer, knocked over experienced Taiwanese player Lu Yen-Hsun while Karen Khachanov, 20, also needed four sets to beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
Kerber was an early loser at both of her warm-up tournaments and she took time to settle against Tsurenko. But the German also started slowly last year, when she had to save a match point against Misaki Doi in the first round.
“The first round is always tough. I’m just trying to enjoy it and I’m so so happy to be in the second round,” Kerber said.
Halep is rated as the fastest player, male or female, over three metres but her usual zip was glaringly absent as she went down 6-3, 6-1 to American rising star Shelby Rogers.
Afterwards she said a knee injury had slowed her down as she succumbed in the first round for the second consecutive year.
For 24-year-old Rogers, it was further proof of her potential after she reached last year’s French Open quarter-finals and rose nearly 100 places in the rankings last year.
Venus Williams, the oldest player in the women’s draw at 36, also found herself with a fight on her hands but she came through 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 against 22-year-old Kateryna Kozlova.
“Girl, I don’t know,” she told on-court interviewer Samantha Smith, who pointed out that Williams turned professional in 1994, the year that Kozlova was born.
“I know how to play tennis. I like to think I’m good at this. She hasn’t had the years that I’ve had yet, the grey hairs and I’m dying, I guess. The wrinkles that I’m hiding ... you’re trying to make me feel old!”
Japan’s Nishikori, who says he is primed to win his first major title this year, came through a five-set battle with Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (6/8), 6-2.
