Thursday 2 July 2015 16:45, UK
Day three at Wimbledon had much to offer tennis fans but was somewhat out-shined by the incredible temperatures stifling up south west London. Here are five things we learned from Wednesday...
Watson solves her way to the third round
In the sweltering conditions of the heatwave Britain's No 1 ladies player, Heather Watson, recorded a brilliant victory to set up a mouthwatering third round tie with Serena Williams.
Watson cruised past former world No 5 Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets 6-4 6-2 to equal her best-ever showing at her home Grand Slam.
A whole different prospect now lies in wait for the 23-year-old on Friday. Top seed and world No 1 Serena Williams will be her third round opponent; a game set to sparkle on Centre Court.
Williams is well on her way to winning the calendar Grand Slam - the Australian and French Opens are already in the bag - and has looked in devastating form this week already, brushing aside Timea Babos of Hungary 6-4 6-1 in the second round.
More upsets in the ladies draw
The seeds are dropping like overheated flies in the women's competition. We saw Simona Halep (3) and Eugenie Bouchard (12) exit on Tuesday, while it was seventh seed Ana Ivanovic who failed to make the cut on day three.
Watched by her football World Cup-winning boyfriend Bastian Schweinsteiger, Ivanovic - the 2008 French Open champion - was outmanoeuvred and out-muscled by the 158-ranked American Bethanie Mattek-Sands in straight sets.
Don't let that lowly ranking smear your judgement of Mattek-Sands, the doubles specialist is currently on course to collect the calendar Slam after winning the Australian and French Open titles with ladies partner Lucie Safarova.
Elsewhere, 19th seed Sara Errani was beaten in three sets 6-3 6-7 6-2 by exciting Serbian prospect Aleksandra Krunic. Plus, 11th seed Czech hitter Karolina Pliskova was knocked out in straight sets by America's CoCo Vandeweghe.
Raonic close to breaking record
Canada's Milos Raonic fired an ace timed at 145mph (233kmph) in his match against Tommy Haas on Court One which Wimbledon officials said was the third fastest in tournament history.
Here are the top three...
1. Taylor Dent (148 mph in 2010)
2. Andy Roddick (146 mph in 2004)
3. Milos Raonic (145 mph in 2015)
Kyrgios continues to cause upset
Raonic will play Aussie hot-head Nick Kyrgios in the third round on Friday. The 20-year-old, who got into trouble on Monday for shouting 'dirty scum' on court - not directed at the umpire who had made a call against him, we add - again raised eyebrows with some colourful language.
He fired another verbal volley during his heated 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-4 second round win over Juan Monaco on Wednesday.
He started off by grumbling about the hot weather and his own performance, saying: "Every time I bend over, I feel like I'm gonna pass out" and then "I can't make a ball, I can't make a ball, I can't do anything right now".
At this point a line judge standing nearby went to speak to Carlos Bernardes. The umpire said something to the Australian in response to that information, prompting Kyrgios to angrily snap: "Is that a threat? Does it feel good to be in the chair up there? Do you feel strong up there?"
Kyrgios wasn't finished and he told the line judge: "You're a real champion. Did you get your point across?"
It isn't the first time Kyrgios has fallen foul of the officials at a major event. He received four fines totalling $11,000 at the Australian Open in January after shouting at one spectator to "get off your f****** phone", while berating some others for sneaking out halfway through his fourth round match.
Too hot to handle
Wimbledon recorded its hottest-ever day, with temperatures at the nearest monitoring station hitting 35.7 degrees Celsius. That topped the previous record of 34.6C (94.3F) set nearly four decades ago in 1976.
The heat got the better of one Wimbledon ball boy, who was stretchered off Court 17 after passing out.
He was sent to hospital for a precautionary check-up and after treatment was "feeling much better", the All England Club said. "We wish him a speedy recovery."
The first aid charity St John Ambulance said it had treated 170 people with five taken to hospital, the majority suffering from heat-related conditions.
