IT’LL BE A COLD DAY IN AUS

Heat forced dozens of matches to be delayed until after sundown on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, all matches started on time in chilly temperatures around 90 degrees F [ 30C].

Australia wild-card entry Wayne Arthurs, 35, possibly in his last Grand Slam, advanced to the third round with a 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 over American qualifier Zach Fleishman, who had his hair died in red, white and blue stripes for the match.

It was the American who was getting frustrated with the power of the Arthurs serve. He served 26 aces yesterday in four sets compared with 19 in five on Monday. "I felt like I was at the casino and getting the wrong hand every time. I could not win," Fleishman said. "I'm glad he's retiring. I never want to see that serve again. "I felt like I guessed wrong on his serve every time. I've never seen anything like it. "I guessed forehand, he went backhand. I guessed backhand and he went forehand."

Roddick will face 2005 champion Safin in the next round. The Russian needed five sets to beat Israel's Dudi Sela 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-0. Play was halted with Safin serving at 5-6, 30-30 in the fourth set, 2 points from losing the match. After the roof was closedfor rain and giving him a 20 minute rest, Safin came out sharp, serving an ace on the first point and running through the tiebreaker against Sela, who lived down to his No. 202 ranking the rest of the way.

Roddick should breeze thru Safin who’s 2 matches have both gone to 5 sets.

Baghdatis, seeded 11th, couldn't hope for such intervention, as the roof stayed closed for his match against the 20-year-old Monfils, who was plagued last year by a stress fracture in his left foot and sprains to his right. Monfils took the first two sets, mixing whiplike groundstrokes with deft, well-disguised drops shots, and windmilling his arms after key points to get the crowd wound up. Then his left foot started bothering him again, and he sought treatment after dropping the third set. Baghdatis' supporters from Melbourne's large Greek community were roaring and it looked like he might rally. But Monfils ran off the last six games, grabbing his face in near disbelief when Baghdatis hit a forehand long on match point.

Defending champion Roger Federer advanced to the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jonas Bjorkman on WednesdayBjorkman relied on drops and some improvised shotmaking to work Federer around, but it rarely worked consistently in the match that lasted 1 hour, 35 minutes.Unlike his opening match against Bjorn Phau, when Federer lost serve three times in the first set, he came out sharp, ripping six forehand winners in the first three games as he jumped to a 3-0 lead that he never relinquished.