Australian Open: A lookahead to today’s action

Melbourne is expected to turn up the heat on Thursday, with temperatures forecast to reach 39 Celsius — 102 degrees Fahrenheit.

The weather might have cooled off before the opening night match on Margaret Court Arena between top-seeded Simona Halep of Romania and former No. 5 Eugenie Bouchard.

The Canadian has fallen on hard times recently, with her ranking dropping to 112.

The two haven’t played since 2014, when Bouchard’s only victory in three matches against Halep that year came in the semifinals at Wimbledon.

Bouchard was playing the best tennis of her career that year, reaching semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open, and losing the Wimbledon final to Petra Kvitova.

Times have changed, and Bouchard likes her underdog status against Halep.

“It’s always really cool to go up against the best in the world. You use it as a measuring stick to see how far off you are. I want to try to play my game and go out there and do some damage... it’s fun to have no pressure.”

Gael Monfils will know what it’s like to be an underdog in his match today against six-time champion Novak Djokovic — the Frenchman has lost all 14 matches against the former No. 1. The only thing going for Monfils is that Djokovic has never beaten him at the Australian Open — because they’ve never played here.

Defending champion Roger Federer has only played his second-round opponent once.

The 19-time Grand Slam singles champion beat JanLennard Struff in straight sets on grass at Halle in 2016.

Other matches of note: Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza plays Hsieh Su-wei, 2016 Australian champion Angelique Kerber, on a 10-match winning streak, takes on Donna Vekic, and Maria Sharapova plays 14th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova.

TODAY FORECAST

Sunny, high of 39 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit)

YESTERDAY’S WEATHER

Sunny, high of 30 C (86 F)

ATTENDANCE

Day: 48,631; TOTAL: 71,816 Night:

QUOTE OF THE DAY

23,185;

“Maybe I will get presents for my family ... and then for myself a bit.”

This was said by Kostyuk on what she will do with the more than $140,000 she has already earned at Melbourne Park in the past week since the tournament started.