Wedding bells, late shows and dead bugs
MELBOURNE
Brief stories from day four of the Australian Open on Thursday:
Caro's wedding tips from Serena
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Caroline Wozniacki could be forgiven for not having marriage on her mind when facing two match points at 5-1 down to little-known Jana Fett in the third set on Wednesday.
But the Danish world number two said after her second round great escape that she is constantly trying to pick up tips for her impending nuptials.
"I think once you're engaged, you start looking at things," she said.
First stop was Serena Williams' wedding to Alexis Ohanian just after the Dane got engaged to former NBA player David Lee in November.
"You're like, oh, I really like that, we'll steal that inspiration for our own wedding," she said of the 23-time Grand Slam winner's ceremony in November.
Any Danish traditions for your wedding? she was asked.
"Honestly, if you ask about wedding traditions in general, I'm not the one to ask," she replied. "I don't really know much."
Dasha blows it in late show
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Local darling Daria 'Dasha' Gavrilova's match against Elise Mertens set a new record for the latest start time for an Australian Open match — 11:59 pm.
The women were left waiting almost until Thursday morning while third-seed Grigor Dimitrov edged past American qualifier Mackenzie McDonald in a five-set thriller 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 0-6, 8-6.
Coincidentally Dimitrov set the previous record when his match a year ago against Richard Gasquet began at 11.58pm — after having to wait for Gavrilova to finish a match against Timea Bacsinszky.
The latest end to a match at any Grand Slam was at Melbourne Park in 2008 when Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis finished a five-setter at 4:33 am.
The early-round scheduling is largely dictated by the demands of local TV, but if anyone happened to stay up past midnight Down Under they would have been mightily disappointed.
Gavrilova somehow managed to blow a 5-0 lead in the first set to crash out 7-5, 6-3.
Too hot for a flutter for moths
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If the players were having it tough on Thursday, one player at least spared a thought for the legions of insects that populate Melbourne Park in the heat of high summer.
Especially as they were literally dropping like, er, flies.
"I think it was too hot today and every time the bug come into the court they're dead," said Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei after pulling off the shock of the tournament in ousting third seed Garbine Muguruza.
"Most of the time I'm picking out the dead body from the bug. It was too hot on court today," she smiled, adding that it hadn't been a problem for herself, the world number 88.
"I heard the weather going to be over 39 degrees. I was thinking: 'Ah, I'm from Asia. I maybe can handle it better'," she laughed.
And cope she certainly did in a stunning 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 demolition of the Wimbledon champion.
