Seeds Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Kei Nishikori took advantage of early starts to advance to the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday as baking conditions prompted tournament officials to invoke the extreme heat policy.
Nishikori battled Serb Dusan Lajovic on an outside court to win 6-1 6-1 7-6 (7-3) in under two hours while Tsonga took slightly longer to defeat Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 6-4 on Hisense Arena.
After prevailing in a tight first-set tiebreak, the French No.10 seed’s task became easier as Bellucci appeared to struggle with the heat.
With temperatures above 40 degrees for the entirety of his match, Bellucci cramped up and was unable to chase several balls.
Tsonga thanked the vocal French contingent in the stands after the match, who have cheered him on at each Melbourne Park match since 2009.
As the only man outside the “big four” of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Roger Federer to have beaten all four in a grand slam, Tsonga’s progression will have higher seeds looking over their shoulders.
Tsonga said he dealt with the heat well, while he suggested Bellucci’s struggles may have owed to him playing qualifying matches to make the main draw.
“Of course it was hot, but today I had good feelings,” he said.
“He played (qualifiers), he had a tough match two days ago and I just play one match… and I’m maybe physically pretty good,” he added.
Tsonga will play either 18th seed Gilles Simon or Marin Cilic in the third round.
Nishikori’s win came on court six earlier in the day, the Japanese No.16 seed beating the worst of the heat.
He described his play as “amazing” and was pleased to win the third set tiebreak convincingly.
“First and second set I was playing really aggressive, big forehand and serve was well also,” Nishikori said.
Other matches have been postponed due to the heat, including Italian 24th seed Andreas Seppi’s battle with American Donald Young.
Seppi will play a fifth set at the resumption of play, two days after he edged a five-set marathon against Lleyton Hewitt.