Roger Federer and Serena Williams showed there was plenty of life left in their relatively old legs by easing into the third round of the Australian Open on a day when sweltering heat tested the stamina of thirty something and teenager alike.

Sunscreen and icepacks were the order of the day on Thursday as temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius in the late afternoon but 31-year-old Federer was coolness personified in the early evening as he dismissed Nikolay Davydenko 6-3 6-4 6-4.

Third seed Williams, also 31, kept her time on court to a minimum as she swept aside Garbine Muguruza 6-2 6-0 before Andy Murray, her counterpart in the men's draw, clinically despatched Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-2 6-2 6-4.