Another former world number four, unseeded Australian Jelena Dokić also moved into the second round for the first time in ten years with a hard-fought victory over Tamira Paszek.

With temperatures soaring in Melbourne, Andy Murray had life made easy in his first round match when opponent Andrei Pavel was forced to concede with a back injury early in the second set, having lost the first.

Other top-ten seeds such as last year's finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and James Blake also progressed comfortably, along with Gaël Monfils, Fernando Verdasco, Richard Gasquet, Jürgen Melzer, Ivo Karlović and Radek Štěpánek, while Igor Andreev and Nicolás Almagro both won through in five sets.

Andy Roddick also needed four sets to get past Xavier Malisse, while Juan Martín del Potro eased into the third round, along with Marin Čilić, David Ferrer, Stanislas Wawrinka, Mardy Fish, Tomáš Berdych and Tommy Robredo.

16th-seeded Robin Söderling was also upset by unseeded former finalist Marcos Baghdatis in four, while lucky loser Amer Delić prevailed in five sets against 28th seed Paul-Henri Mathieu and French veteran Fabrice Santoro came from behind to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber.

In the feature night match at Rod Laver Arena, sixteen-year-old Bernard Tomic took the first set against Gilles Müller but eventually lost 3–6, 6–1, 6–4, 6–2 to the more experienced Luxembourger.

Top seed Jelena Janković encountered resistance against Kirsten Flipkens but eventually won 6–4, 7–5, while Ana Ivanovic had an easier time against qualifier Alberta Brianti.

The doubles matches also began, with most of the seeds in action passing their first tests, including Bob and Mike Bryan, Jeff Coetzee/Wesley Moodie, Mariusz Fyrstenberg/Marcin Matkowski, Bruno Soares/Kevin Ullyett, Max Mirnyi/Andy Ram, Travis Parrott/Filip Polášek, František Čermák/Michal Mertiňák and Christopher Kas/Rogier Wassen, as well as Yan Zi/Zheng Jie, Samantha Stosur/Rennae Stubbs, Maria Kirilenko/Flavia Pennetta, Casey Dellacqua/Francesca Schiavone, Hsieh Su-wei/Peng Shuai and Tatiana Poutchek/Anastasia Rodionova in the women's side.

In the men's draw, top seed Rafael Nadal continued on his quest for a first Australian Open crown without too much trouble from Roko Karanušić, winning through in straight sets 6–2, 6–3, 6–2.

Unseeded Spaniard Carla Suárez Navarro scored the biggest upset to date in women's singles, defeating one of the pre-tournament favourites, 6th seeded Venus Williams 2–6, 6–3, 7–5, after coming back from 5–2 down and saving one match point while serving at 5–4 down in the third set.

Earlier in the night session, Jelena Dokić continued her fairytale comeback to Grand Slam tennis by upsetting 11th seeded Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki, despite losing the first set she bounced back strongly to take the next two 6–1, 6–2, and will meet Kleybanova next.

In men's doubles action, the upset of the day was created by unseeded Łukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach, when they knocked out the top seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić in straight sets, in a day of upsets for the men's doubles which saw a total of five seeds being knocked out of the competition, including defending champion Andy Ram, partnering Max Mirnyi this year, crashing out to Spanish Davis Cup winning pair of Feliciano López and Fernando Verdasco.

Gilles Simon and Gaël Monfils set up an all-French fourth round encounter after powering past their opponents, unseeded Croat Mario Ančić and 17th seed Nicolás Almagro.

Women's top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber went through to the next round as well, along with Victoria Azarenka/Vera Zvonareva, Daniela Hantuchová/Ai Sugiyama, Květa Peschke/Lisa Raymond while Sorana Cîrstea/Monica Niculescu fell to Nathalie Dechy/Mara Santangelo.

Both players were tipped to be highly successful in the future, but it was del Potro who stood firm with less error count as he prevailed 5–7, 6–4, 6–4, 6–2 and will play three-time champion, world no.

7th seed Andy Roddick also moved on to the quarterfinals with a comprehensive 7–5, 6–1, 6–3 victory over Tommy Robredo, and will play defending champion Novak Djokovic for a place in his 4th Australian Open semifinals.

However, after a missing chances to go 2–0 up in the second, Azarenka started to show signs of discomfort and was broken instead to trail 3–2, and a medical timeout couldn't do the wonders as the youngster retired in tears after another game.

In men's doubles, 4th seeds Lukáš Dlouhý and Leander Paes advanced into the quarterfinals after defeating local pairing of Paul Hanley/Jordan Kerr, while Joseph Sirianni/Andrew Coelho also lost to Simone Bolelli/Andreas Seppi.

In the men's draw, Novak Djokovic's reign as the defending champion came to an abrupt end after he forfeited his match against Andy Roddick while 7–6(3), 4–6, 2–6, 1–2 down, due to heat stress.

Roddick will face a familiar foe in second seed Roger Federer next, after the Swiss recorded an astonishingly easy victory over Juan Martín del Potro, who is playing in just his second Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Day ten of the competition saw temperatures reaching as high as 43 degrees Celsius, causing the extreme heat policy (EHP) to be implemented for the first time this year.

Kuznetsova, visibly unhappy at the interruption, hang in tough to break Williams again and went 5–3 up, but will rue missing a golden opportunity to make her first Australian Open semifinal as Williams won 4 games in a row to take the second set 7–5, and blasted her way through the third 6–1, winning ten out of the last eleven games to destroy the Russian's dream of an all-Russian semifinal, following Elena Dementieva's 15th win of the season.

Last year's finalists Sania Mirza/Mahesh Bhupathi also won through against Aleksandra Wozniak/Daniel Nestor, and will play Czechs Iveta Benešová/Lukáš Dlouhý, who received a walkover from Alizé Cornet/Marcelo Melo.

The women's semifinals were played at Rod Laver Arena with the roof closed due to high temperatures, which eventually caused the Extreme Heat Policy to be invoked for the second day in a row with outdoor matches suspended until evening.

In the first men's semifinals, Roger Federer was back to his best as he dismantled American Andy Roddick 6–2, 7–5, 7–5 to move on to his fourth Australian Open final, having won the previous three in 2004, 2006 and 2007.

The Slovakian-Japanese pairing looked sharp on the way to a 6–4, 6–3 victory over Nathalie Dechy and Mara Santangelo, while the Williams sisters, with Serena fresh from her singles semifinals, crushing 12th seeds Casey Dellacqua/Francesca Schiavone 6–0, 6–2.

Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram were the first to advance to the mixed doubles final, sending the last seeded pair Anabel Medina Garrigues and Tommy Robredo out of the tournament with a 7–6(7), 6–4 win.

Playing beneath the roof of the Rod Laver Arena as temperatures hit 43 degrees Celsius outdoors, the Slovak—Japanese pairing appeared to have the upper hand at first, breaking Venus to take the opening game.

Last year's mixed doubles finalist, India's Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi also earned the opportunity for another shot at the title, cruising past Iveta Benešová/Lukáš Dlouhý 6–1, 6–4 to advance to the finals against Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram.

A hope for a Safina comeback was quickly extinguished as Williams looked sharp, blasting winners and heavy returns past her younger opponent, and sealed the first set 6–0 in just 22 minutes.