The heat persisted on day four of Melbourne Park action, but sweat failed to dampen our spirits.
• Daily Deuce: day one
• Daily Deuce: day two
• Daily Deuce: day three
In our Australian Open column, The Daily Deuce, we reflect on the drama you might have missed on and off the court, as well as the sartorial triumphs and missteps of the sporting elite.
Here’s what captured our attention on Thursday:
Rafael Nadal’s near-knockout by American Tim Smyczek inspired a plethora of emotions in fans, but no one reacted more strongly than Andy Murray.
Nadal came back from crippling cramps and illness to beat Smyczek in five sets, a feat many lauded as heroic.
Not Murray.
Check out the tweet he fired off on Thursday, the morning after the epic showdown.
When I cramped and won in the us open last year I was a “drama Queen, unfit, needs to see a shrink, faker” weird…
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) January 22, 2015
Someone’s a little bitter.
Men everywhere winced in sympathy when a ballkid at the Feliciano Lopez and Adrian Mannarino match copped a ball where it hurts most.
It was a Lopez serve – clocked at 196km/h – that collided with the nether regions of the young man, who struggled to contain his suffering.
Both players immediately headed over to check on the boy, who was walked off court to applause from the sympathetic crowd.
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There’s been a lot of hullabaloo surrounding Nike’s fluorescent oufits (are they too “disruptive”?) but somehow, Stanislas Wawrinka’s sponsor Yonex seems to have escaped scrutiny.
In actual fact, they deserve just as much criticism for dressing the fourth seed as a set of venetian blinds. The optical illusion is almost too great to bear.
We finally have proof Roger Federer was sent from the heavens.
Here, we see a rare picture of him communicating with his creator on the way to a warm-up session.
Fans at the Open are known for their enthusiasm, but none more so than the Genie Army, who back Canadian youngster Eugenie Bouchard.
Bouchard’s supporters are so unflinchingly loyal, they’ll go to extreme lengths to cheer her on.
Like these men, who threw their phone down to the 20-year-old so she could snap a selfie on court.
Sweet or borderline stalkers? You decide.