After Sam Stosur's first round exit from the Sydney International, online bookmaker Sportsbet.com.au isn't so confident the Australian can add to her one grand slam this year. She is paying $1.25 not to win a final of the four majors this year. Meanwhile Bernard Tomic is $1.44 favourite to progress further than Lleyton Hewitt ($2.65) at the Australian Open.

HEAT STROKES

And the ''Harden up'' award goes to Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova. The temperature was a tad over 25 degrees yesterday morning when she retired midway through her match with Lucie Safarova, suffering from a bout of ''heat illness''. For her sake, let's hope it doesn't get over 30 degrees in Melbourne next week.

THE LUCK OF THE DANISH

There was no sign of an Irish accent when Caroline Wozniacki spoke about her win over Dominika Cibulkova. The world number one tweeted on Monday that she had been told she was picking up the lilt from her boyfriend, Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy.

AN OLDIE BUT A GOODIE

You could almost hear the bones creaking when Radek Stepanek faced Xavier Malisse. Stepanek, 33, holds the titles of both the oldest player to finish in the top 50 and the oldest player to win last season. He downed Malisse, 31, in three sets 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4.

DOUBLES NO TROUBLES

A back injury forced Italy's Flavia Pennetta out of the women's singles in Sydney, but she recovered to join doubles partner Gisela Dulko in their match. The pair were defeated by American duo Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-4, 7-5, but will defend their Australian Open doubles title.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

''Is this towel clean? … Ah, she's clean.'' Caroline Wozniacki's response to sitting on Li Na's towel before her media conference.

ORDER OF PLAY

Centre Court: J.Del Potro (ARG) v L.Kubot (POL), M.Baghdatis (CYP) v M.Ebden (AUS), V.Azarenka (BLR) v M.Bartoli (FRA), D.Hantuchova (SVK) v P.Kvitova (CZE), C.Wozniacki (DEN) v A.Radwanska (POL).