On-site correspondent Matt Tewhatu rejoins us from Melbourne with his latest look at American success in qualifying and notable performers on the practice courts.

Americans prosper on ultra-fast courts

All eyes were on the men’s and women’s Australian Open defending champions Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka as the Australian Open main draw was announced at the foot of Margaret Court Arena this morning. As the smoke settled on the announcement of what will be a formidable fortnight, the steadily increasing crowd didn’t forget about the players on the show courts who were still attempting to qualify for the main draw of the 2014 Australian Open.

Fortunately for the United States, few things changed between day two and day three of qualifying as the American contingent enjoyed another prosperous day at Melbourne Park. Many of the Americans could have been forgiven for thinking it was August in New York as they seemed to thrive under the searing sun, playing on “US Open-like” fast paced courts.

Their suitability to the conditions was clear as a whopping six American players made it through their second-round matches, giving the United States the highest representation of players in the third and final round. Among the winners were fourth seed Denis Kudla, Rhyne Williams and Alex Kuznetsov on the men’s side and Victoria Duval (pictured above), Irina Falconi and Madison Brengle on the women’s side.

The match of the round out of the American victors would undoubtedly have to be Williams’ win over fellow American Austin Krajicek. The crafty left-handed Krajicek, who outlasted Malek Jaziri 9-7 in the third set a round before, all but matched Williams in both sets.  But he could not hold his resolve at the crucial stages and fell in two tight tiebreak sets.

Considering that two of the day’s match-ups featured American players on either side of the net, American tennis fans can count themselves marginally unlucky as there could have been more players on hand to compete for entry into the main draw. The qualifying rounds for both the men and the women will continue on Saturday.

Bird’s Eye View

As the weather continued to heat up in Melbourne, so did play on the practice courts as players attempted to compensate for early losses in warm-up tournaments with heavy practice sessions.

The player on the men’s side of the draw who especially impressed in practice today was the charismatic Frenchman Gael Monfils. After warming up by playing bowls with the tennis ball and the base-line, Monfils quickly got down to business by hitting with Bulgarian world No. 23 Grigor Dimitrov. It seems as if Monfils’ choice of Doha for warm-up tournament placed him in good stead to cope with the heat in Melbourne as he didn’t seem to struggle at all in the oppressive conditions. His movement around the court seemed faultless as he appeared to place further emphasis on making clean contact.

The player on the women’s side who also impressed today was quiet achiever Romanian 11th seed Simona Halep. After her poor loss to American Madison Keys in Sydney during the week, Halep has shown no loss of confidence in her ball-striking. In a practice session with Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, it was obvious that the 22-year-old had placed more emphasis on attempting to cope with the high-bouncing ball. While Halep showed no signs of wilting in the 90-degree heat, it appeared as if they were attempting to mimic match scenarios as they played practice games with great intensity.