Due to the heat delay on Thursday, many matches were completed too late to be discussed in the recap. Therefore, some matches completed late Thursday night will be included in this recap.

The major story from late Thursday night was Roberto Bautista Agut’s upset of Juan Martin Del Potro. The match, which went well past midnight, was a classic affair of two big hitters each trying to blast the other off the court. It was strong, solid tennis on both sides and was really enjoyable for just about everyone (except Del Potro fans, obviously). It was Del Potro’s seventh consecutive loss in a fifth set.

Del Potro was considered by many to be a potential dark horse to win this entire tournament, and his loss should give Rafael Nadal fans even more confidence in their player. Nadal has a potentially tricky match against Gael Monfils tomorrow, but after that no one should scare him at all until Andy Murray or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals. Still, overlooking Kei Nishikori on these quick courts would be a mistake.

Since the forecast is due to cool off now, this will probably be my last chance to mention the fact that the Australian Open has been very foolish with this heat wave. Tournaments will halt play in wet conditions because it is unsafe to play on slippery lines. Why was the tournament so slow in realizing that heat this extreme can be far more dangerous?

Today’s (and Last Night’s) Best:

Roberto Bautista Agut:  Bautista Agut has always been a talented player. He can move well and hit big. His issue is that he has almost never been consistent. He plays mostly on the Challenger tour, but his full potential is undervalued. People won’t underestimate him going forward now, though, since he went toe-to-toe with Del Potro for five full sets. Bautista Agut won more of the most important points with great tennis, and we are all hoping for and looking forward to seeing similar displays of talent in the future.

David Ferrer:  Ferrer continues to subtly impress in his run through the tournament. He just reached his 15th consecutive second week at a Slam, currently second only to Novak Djokovic. (Federer’s incredible streak was snapped last year at Wimbledon.) Ferrer pushed Jeremy Chardy—a solid top 30 player in his own right—around the court in point after point. Ferrer might never be expected to win a Slam because his game doesn’t translate well against the top players, but he is definitely widening the gap between him and the rest of the field.

Gilles Simon:  I don’t know how Simon has done this. He was on crutches with an ankle injury days before the start of the tournament. There was rampant speculation as to why he never withdrew from the tournament. Then, deep into the night on Thursday, he played a strong match to beat Marin Cilic. I don’t know how his ankle is feeling, but if he can do that on it he should be good moving forward.

Today’s (and Last Night’s) Worst:

Jerzy Janowicz:  I’m still avoiding saying that these warriors who competed in the inhumane heat played badly, but Jerzy cannot escape my attention today. He played a poor match against Florian Mayer. Janowicz’s game was littered with errors, and his movement and decision-making were suspect, to say the least. He said that an injury could not allow him to train properly before the season, which certainly can hamper performance. But Janowicz has yet to show the consistency he needs to stay in the top 20. Without that semifinal from Wimbledon last year, he would barely be in the top 50. Janowicz still has not shown us any ability to compete at an elite level for more than two or three weeks a year.

Fernando Verdasco:  Verdasco’s fall from glory was as swift as it was surprising. He used to be a consistent top-10 player but hasn’t been anything close to that for a few years now. Fans almost expect Verdasco to find some embarrassing yet amusing way to lose matches that he should win. Late Thursday night, he did just that against Teymuraz Gabashvili. Gabashvili is a clay-courter who has never seen real success on hard courts. Actually, he hasn’t seen much success anywhere recently, not reaching the fourth round of a Slam since Roland Garros 2010.

Match of the Day:

Thursday night had three matches that stretched well past midnight, and they all deserve some recognition. Two of them were the aforementioned Del Potro/Bautista Agut and Simon/Cilic matches.

The third was Nick Kyrgios against Benoit Paire. Kyrgios captured the attention and hearts of his nation when he won the first two sets against the 27th-seeded Paire. However, he then began cramping and fatigue took over. He never really had much of a chance in the final two sets, but that didn’t stop the Aussie crowd from cheering him on.

Somehow, in that loss, Kyrgios became something of an Australian tennis icon. In fact, all of the attention towards him caused his website to crash on Friday afternoon. Kyrgios is going to be something special someday, and this week has been another step in the right direction. Although there was plenty of good tennis, none of the early matches on Friday compared to this.