Top Seeds Surviving, Advancing in Heat

The first Major of the tennis season, ESPN’s 30th Australian Open, heads into its middle weekend with the top seeds all having survived and advanced in the brutal daily 100+ degree temperatures (now thankfully, seemingly, over) and ESPN2’s marathon overnight telecasts continue.  Tonight on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET (Fans can also choose the match they want to watch on ESPN3.):
•    Men’s matches include Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal vs. Gael Monfils, and Donald Young – surprisingly the last American male standing – facing Kei Nishikori, the No. 16 seed.
•    Women stars in action include American Sloane Stephens, Victoria Azarenka, Agi Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki.

Men’s seeds No. 1 – 4 – Rafael Nadal, three-time defending champ Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer and Andy Murray plus No. 6 Roger Federer – all have withstood their opponents and the heat; No. 5 Juan Martin Del Potro is the only player in the top 10 to have lost.

On the women’s side, the top five seeds remain in the hunt:  Serena Williams (with five titles in Melbourne among her 17 Major victories), two-time defending champion Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Li Na and Agnieszka Radwanska.

The tournament will culminate with the women’s championship Saturday, Jan 25, and the men’s championship Sunday, Jan. 26, both on ESPN at 3 a.m. ET with reairs on ESPN2 at 9 a.m.

Tonight’s Matches starting at 9 p.m.:
(6) Roger Federer (SUI) vs Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS)
(13) Sloane Stephens (USA) vs Elina Svitolina (UKR)
(5) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) vs (29) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)
(11) Milos Raonic (CAN) vs (22) Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)
(4) Andy Murray (GBR) vs (26) Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
(10) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) vs Garbine Muguruza (ESP)

And at 3 a.m.:
(2) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) vs Yvonne Meusburger (AUT)
(10) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) vs (18) Gilles Simon (FRA)
Donald Young (USA) vs (16) Kei Nishikori (JPN)
(1) Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs (25) Gael Monfils (FRA)

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