Australian Open: Federer, Djokovic through

Roger Federer eased to a second round victory in Melbourne

Both Roger Federer and Novac Djokovic are through to the last 32 at day three of the Australian Open in Melbourne as Andy Murray awaits his second round match scheduled for Thursday morning.

Former world number one Federer eased through in a straight sets victory over Russian Evgeny Korolev, 6-2 6-3 6-1. The result will come as a relief to Federer who was in less convincing form in his first round match against Andreas Seppi.

And third seed Novac Djokovic also made the next round with an equally comfortable 7-5 6-1 6-3 win over Jeremy Chardy from France.

Meanwhile Andy Murray will play his second round match against Marcel Granollers under the floodlights at around 0930GMT tomorrow morning. The scheduled night match will come as a relief to the British number one as temperatures during the day in Melbourne have soared to around 40C. Murray only played one-and-a-half sets of his first round match before his Romanian opponent Andrei Pavel retired due to a back problem.

So Murray will be grateful to be playing at nighttime with cooler temperatures. Speaking after his victory Murray said: “When it’s as hot as this I think you’ve just got to trust the work that you’ve put in is good enough.”

Other players that progressed to round three include Andy Roddick and Marat Safin.

In the women’s event, number one seed Jelena Jankovic made it past Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens in straight sets 6-4 7-5 and Ana Ivanovic also progressed to the third round with a victory over Italy’s Alberta Brianti, 6-3 6-2.

And despite dropping a set, third seed Dinara Safina also secured a place in the last 32 beating Ekaterina Makarova 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-0.

The schedule of play for day four has some interesting matches that include world number one Rafael Nadal against Croatia’s Roko Karanusic and Venus Williams plays Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, and of course Andy Murray’s evening encounter with Marcel Granollers will have the Britain watching over their breakfast.

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