• Australian Open, Day Four

A bug's life for Serena Williams

Serena Williams was happy to play in the blazing sun © Getty Images

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Serena's bugbear
Five-time winner Serena Williams won her Australian Open second-round match against Barbora Zahlavova Strycova with ease. The match, much to Williams' delight, was the second to be played on Rod Laver Arena, starting just after midday. After playing a night match in round one, Williams put in an official request to not play under lights so as to avoid the insects attracted to Melbourne Park.

"The bugs fell on my back twice," Williams said of her first-round match."I hate bugs more than you can imagine. Like, they kept jumping on me. I just, Yuck! So I'm going to request not to play at night any more because I hate bugs, except for the final."

Williams gets metric
During her win, her 500th of her career, Williams fired down a blistering 191km/h serve. However, the ferocity of the delivery was evidently lost on the American.

"In the US we do miles so I don't know, is that fast? I wasn't trying to hit it hard, I was just trying to get it in play," said Williams.

Survival of the least injured
Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick are two of the game's biggest names, but both have injury records that would make a Hollywood stuntman wince. It was Roddick who succumbed this time, as an injury picked up when slipping on court forced him to offer his hand when two sets to one down. The American deserves great credit for pushing Hewitt hard in the third set while clearly struggling. He seemed to accept his fate when, on his fourth set point, Hewitt's backhand hit the top of the net, wiped its feet and toppled over. Roddick went back to his chair, called the trainer and offered his hand. He walked off court to a deserved standing ovation.

A work in progress
The early days of Andy Murray's working relationship with Ivan Lendl have been positive but it would appear the Scot has work to do before entering the circle of trust. Lendly has been spending plenty of time on the golf course, but Murray's invite has seemingly got lost in the post.

"He has been [to the golf course] pretty much every single day. He has not invited me along yet. I don't think I am good enough for him."

Ivan Lendl went to great lengths to keep warm © PA Photos

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Wrapping up warm
Lendl is back in the tennis spotlight after taking up the role as Murray's coach. During his playing days, he was likened to a machine for the steel, determination and ruthless efficiency he showed on court. The facade of a machine has been blown out of the water at the Australian Open as, despite the temperatures being a balmy 20+ degrees, Lendl was spotted shivering under a towel.

Novak wants a video nasty
Marcos Baghdatis and David Nalbandian hit the headlines on Wednesday for their racket-abuse antics. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has a history of temper tantrums of court. He claims to have mellowed, but is still a fan of the racket smashers. When asked to comment on Baghdatis' antics, Djokovic said: "I haven't seen that. I heard about it. I'm going to go to YouTube now, check that out. In my case, I've stopped doing it. I'm not doing it as often, which is good for my coach, good news. But when I have a smash of the racquet, smack of the racquet, I usually feel relieved afterwards. I feel that the pressure is out. But a bit embarrassed, as well. So I try to hold my composure."

Austerity tennis for Raonic
The racket-breaking furore seems to be the question of choice for the scribes in the press from. It was put to Milos Raonic following his win over Philipp Petzschner and an interesting response came from a professional earning huge sums. He said: "I have 10 racquets. I need to play with 10 racquets. I don't have any to break. I never really broke rackets too much often. last year I played the first half of the year with three rackets and the second half of the year with four rackets. Now I have a few more rackets, but I don't feel the habit or anger to break them."

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