MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - The Latest on Wednesday at the Australian Open (all times local):
11:55 p.m.
Third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov has scraped into the third round of the Australian Open - just - with a tough five-set win over 186th-ranked qualifier Mackenzie McDonald, a former U.S collegiate champion from Los Angeles.
Dimitrov beat the 22-year-old McDonald 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 0-6, 8-6 in a late-night match at Rod Laver Arena that went nearly 3 1-2 hours.
McDonald double-faulted to set up match point, then netted a forehand to give Dimitrov the win.
McDonald won the NCAA singles and doubles title for UCLA in 2016. He had never won an ATP or Grand Slam singles match in four attempts until his victory in the first round over a fellow qualifier on Monday.
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9:25 p.m.
Nick Kyrgios overcame distractions from a faulty speaker system at Hisense Arena and a lot of noise to beat Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (2) in the second round of the Australian Open.
The 17th-seeded Kyrgios complained numerous times to chair umpire James Keothavong about noise coming from his microphone during points. Eventually, the umpire turned the microphone off and just shouted the score after each point.
Keothavong’s night was about to get worse. With Kyrgios serving in the tiebreaker, Troicki hit an errant backhand return that slammed directly into the chair umpire’s head. The Serbian player walked smiling to the umpire’s chair to apologize, while Keothavong joked, “It’s not my day, is it?”
Troicki fended off one match point in the ninth game of the third set and then broke in the next game to force the tiebreaker, but he couldn’t challenge Kyrgios in the decider.
Kyrgios has advanced beyond the third round only once at his home slam when he reached the quarterfinals in 2015.
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9 p.m.
Alize Cornet has beaten No. 12-seeded Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-3 to reach the third round of the Australian Open.
No. 42-ranked Cornet had taken only one set in five previous losses to Goerges, who was on a 15-match winning streak after her opening win at Melbourne Park. Goerges won the title at a warmup tournament in Auckland, New Zealand earlier this month and finished last year with titles at Moscow and Zhuhai.
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8:50 p.m.
Rafael Nadal wants to see the roofs closed on the main show courts at the Australian Open if temperatures hit the forecast highs in the next couple days.
Temperatures are expected to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) on Thursday and Friday as a heat wave passes through Melbourne.
Nadal said he believes the roofs at Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and Hisense Arena should be closed to protect the players’ health in extreme conditions.
“Even I like sometimes play with hot (temperatures),” he said. “When is too much, it becomes dangerous for the health. I would not like to see here retirements.”
The Australian Open has an extreme heat policy that goes into effect when temperatures reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). The roofs can be closed in such situations prior to the start of play.
Nadal isn’t scheduled to play again until Friday. He said he’s still avoiding the heat on Thursday and practicing indoors.
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7:25 p.m.
Top-ranked Rafael Nadal is into the third round at Melbourne Park after beating Leonardo Mayer 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
Nadal, who lost in the final here last year to Roger Federer, served for the match but was broken in the 10th game, with Mayer hitting a cross-court winner that clipped the line.
In the tiebreaker, Nadal won on his first match point with a service winner.
Nadal will next play 28th-seeded Damir Dzumhur, who beat John Millman in four sets.
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6:45 p.m.
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko is through to the third round at Melbourne Park, beating Duan Yingying 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 on Margaret Court Arena.
It is the second year in a row that the seventh-seeded Ostapenko has advanced to the third round here after losing in the first round in her first appearance in Australia in 2016.
Ostapenko is playing her first Grand Slam with her new coach, Australian David Taylor.
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4:40 p.m.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga came from 5-2 down in the fifth set to beat Denis Shapovalov 3-6, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 in a second-round match on Margaret Court Arena.
Tsonga broke the Canadian’s serve for the second consecutive time to level the match at 5-5, including a full stretch sideways on break point on an attempted passing shot by Shapovalov.
Another of Tsonga’s array of shots during the final set included one from between his legs for a winner.
He finally clinched it on his first match point, ending the 3 hour, 37-minute match.
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Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki has come from 5-1 down in the third set and saved two match points to beat Jana Fett 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the second round.
Fett is ranked 119th and was making her first appearance in the main singles draw of a Grand Slam tournament.
Wozniacki twice broke Fett’s service while the Croatian player was serving for the match, including the two match points in the seventh game.
Wozniacki then broke Fett’s service in the 11th game, helped by a Fett double-fault on break point and an unforced error by the Croatian which ended a 26-point rally.
She then held serve, clinching it on her first match point when Fett netted a backhand, giving her a six-game winning streak to end the match.
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2:10 p.m.
Two days after beating Venus Williams in the first round, Belinda Bencic is out of the Australian Open.
Bencic, who defeated Williams 6-3, 7-5, started out flatly and never recovered in losing to qualifier Luksika Kumkhum 6-1, 6-3 in a match on Melbourne Park’s third show court.
Bencic, who has reached a career high No. 7 ranking but entered the Australian Open at No. 78, had beat the 124th-ranked Kumkhum in straight sets in both previous matches they’d played.
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1:30 p.m.
Fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina has rallied to reach the third round of the Australian Open with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
Svitolina was 0 for 6 on break-point chances in the first set, but recovered to break Siniakova six times over the rest of the match.
The Ukrainian has now matched her best showing at the Australian Open, having reached the third round in four of the past five years. She’s never advanced beyond the third round, however.
Svitolina comes into this year’s tournament on a roll, winning her 10th career title at the season-opening Brisbane International. She beat two top-10 players to take the trophy.
Ukrainian women went 3-for-3 in second round matches on Wednesday afternoon, with 15-year-old Marta Kostyuk and Kateryna Bondarenko also advancing. Svitolina plays Kostyuk next.
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12:35 p.m.
Marta Kostyuk, a 15-year-old qualifier from Ukraine who beat 25th-seeded Peng Shuai in the first round, has advanced to the third with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Olivia Rogowska, a wild-card entry from Australia.
Kostyuk, who entered the tournament ranked No. 521, had already played six hours on court through three three-set qualifying rounds before beating Peng in the first round.
The win over Peng gave Kostyuk the distinction of being the youngest player to win a main-draw match at the Australian Open since Martina Hingis in 1996.
Kostyuk, a former Australian Open junior champion, will play either fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina or Katerina Siniakova in the third round.
Her fellow Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko beat No. 15-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a quarterfinalist here last year, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the third round in Australia for the third time.
The 31-year-old Bondarenko broke Pavlyuchenkova’s serve four times and only dropped her own serve once to register her 20th career win against a top 20 player.
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11:30 a.m.
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal, second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and local hope Nick Kyrgios were set to play their second-round matches at the Australian Open on Wednesday.
Melbourne Park was bathed in sunshine when Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic took on fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina in the opening match at Rod Laver Arena, with Wozniacki to play Jana Fett in the following match.
Temperatures were forecast to reach 31 Celsius (88 Fahrenheit) later in the day.
Nadal, a losing finalist last year to Roger Federer, played Leonardo Mayer in the third match on center court.
Kyrgios, who upset Nadal in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2014 as a 19-year-old, was scheduled to play Viktor Troicki in a night match at Hisense Arena.
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