MELBOURNE, Australia — Stan Wawrinka left it as late as possible before deciding his knee might just be good enough to get him through the Australian Open.
The 2014 champion was being way too ambitious. A 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 loss to No. 97-ranked Tennys Sandgren, 26, in the second round was his earliest exit in a decade at Melbourne Park.
“I only had surgery five months ago,” said Wawrinka, who still has a visible scar running down his left knee. “To be that far already, it’s more than what we could have expected.”
On a searing hot day at Melbourne Park when the temperature hit 104 degrees, No. 9 Wawrinka, No. 7 David Goffin and No. 13 Sam Querrey were the three seeded players to fall in the men’s draw.
Six-time champion Novak Djokovic survived the round, but complained of the “brutal” heat in a comeback four-set victory over an ailing Gael Monfils that extended his record to 15-0 in their career head-to-heads.
The temperature had dropped to 84 degrees by the time defending champion Roger Federer wrapped up his 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over Jan-Lennard Struff on Thursday night at Rod Laver Arena.
For a while Swiss compatriots Federer and Wawrinka were playing on adjoining courts at the same time, but their fitness and results were contrasting.
Wawrinka appeared lethargic and generally didn’t threaten Sandgren, who had never beaten a top 10 player. His victories in the first two rounds here make Sandgren 2-0 at majors.
Wawrinka won here in 2014, at the French Open the following year and the U.S. Open in 2016. Until this week, he hadn’t played since Wimbledon last July.
“When you’ve won three Grand Slams, you don’t feel great on the court like today,” he said. “But I need to take what I can to be positive with everything, with the big picture.”
Muguruza also struggled with her fitness in the build up to the Australian Open, hampered at two warm-up tournaments by cramping and a thigh problem.
Blisters from the hot court surface didn’t help her in a 7-6 (1), 6-4 loss to No. 88-ranked Hsieh Su-wei, who has been No. 1 in doubles but had a career-high ranking of 23rd in singles.
That left only Maria Sharapova, Angelique Kerber and French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko as Grand Slam winners in the women’s draw.
Sharapova and Kerber will meet in the third round, meaning only one of the remaining Australian Open winners can reach the second week.
Sharapova beat No. 14-seeded Anastasija Sevastova 6-1, 7-6 (4) to avenge a fourth-round loss in last year’s U.S. Open, the five-time major winner’s first Grand Slam after returning from a 15-month doping ban.
Kerber, the 2016 champion, had a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Donna Vekic before the Margaret Court Arena crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to celebrate her 30th birthday.
Still aiming for a first major, topranked Simona Halep, a two-time French Open finalist, held off 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 6-2. Halep next plays Lauren Davis.
U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys opened with four consecutive aces and won the first 11 games in a 6-0, 6-1 victory over No. 92-ranked Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Also advancing were No. 6 Karolina Pliskova, No. 8 Caroline Garcia, No. 26 Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 28 Ash Barty.
The heat peaked during Djokovic’s 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Monfils. Both players slouched over in the shade between points, earning warnings about time delays from the chair umpire.
Now seeded 14th, Djokovic needed four match points in an eight-minute last game before clinching against Mofils, who needed a medical timeout for heat stress and said he had trouble breathing.
Djokovic, who won five of the six titles from 2011-2016, is a step closer to a possible meeting with fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev, who had a 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Gojowczyk.