The Brutal Australian Heat is Expected to Arrive

Written by: Staff on 15th January 2013

The Brutal Australian Heat is Expected to Arrive

epa03519708 Li Na of China returns the ball to world number one woman tennis player Victoria Azarenka of Belarus during their tennis exhibition match at Hua Hin resort city, Prachuap Khiri Khan province, Thailand, 29 December 2012. EPA/PONGMANAT TASIRI |

The notoriously brutal Melbourne heat is likely to hit the Australian Open on Thursday with temperatures of 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit) forecast as top ten players Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova face up respectively to teenagers Donna Vekic and Laura Robson.

Conditions were sunny and warm, rather than roasting, as Vekic (the youngest player in the Aussie Open women’s singles draw) won her first Grand Slam match with an impressive 6-1,6-2 score line over the Czech Republic’s 66th ranked Andrea Hlavackova. Then Robson followed suit by beating American Melanie Oudin 6-2, 6-3.

Robson, this week ranked world no.53 but looking to reclaim the top fifty spot she held in the build up to the Australian Open, celebrated by jumping in an ice bath for ten minutes. “I’m probably going to need longer after the next round on Thursday because it’s going to be really hot and it’s a matter of just getting through it.”

But the 18 year-old who is looking to add Kvitova to those impressive scalps of Grand Slam champions Kim Clijsters and Li Na she gathered at last year’s US Open said: “Although I don’t really like playing in those sort of conditions, I tend to play well in them.

“It was boiling at Guangzhou last year and I reached the final. Before that it was ridiculously hot in Palmero in July and I got to the semis. Before coming here I was in Hobart when they recorded the hottest day on record in Tasmania and it was like having a hair dryer blowing in your face.”

Robson spent a month at Chris Evert’s Academy in Boca Raton, Florida before Christmas for her warm weather preparation. By contrast 16 year-old Vekic was at her north-west London base at VirginActive Riverside Club in Northwood, Middlesex before heading home to Croatia.

“I don’t mind the hot weather but the important thing against a player like Wozniacki, who was world no.1 this time last year, is just to be relaxed and concentrate so I can play my tennis,” said the youngster coached by Tim Henman’s former guide David Felgate.

“I’m very excited as it will be on a big court and maybe it might even be played at night, although it will still be hot then. But I will concentrate on thinking it’s just another match so I must do the things I’m good at and my serve can do a lot of damage and give me some free points.”

Vekic, who has been based in England for the last three years, was insistent she had no intention in switching her national allegiance and playing Fed Cup tennis for Britain alongside Robson and Heather Watson. “ No, I’ve never thought about it but I’v never been asked.”

©Daily tennis news wire

Topics: Australian Open, Caroline Wozniacki, Donna Vekic, grandslam, Kim Clijsters, Laura Robson, Li Na, Melbourne, Petra Kvitova, Sports, Tennis