Roger Federer enjoyed the kinder conditions of the night session as he beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff at the Australian Open.

After the temperature earlier neared 40C, second seed Federer saw off Struff 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in closer to 30C.

The five-time champion goes on to face French 29th seed Richard Gasquet in the third round.

Federer’s fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka was beaten in his second match since returning from knee surgery.

The 2014 champion, seeded ninth, only decided to play in Melbourne on the eve of the tournament and was well below his best as he lost 6-2 6-1 6-4 to Tennys Sandgren of the USA.

“I think the last 12 days was more than what I could have dreamed coming here,” Wawrinka said.

“I really came without thinking I will be able to play the first match. That’s a big step for me.”

• Djokovic beats Monfils in ‘brutal’ Melbourne heat
• Konta loses to world number 123 Pera
• Muguruza out but Halep through
• Scores, schedule and results

There were no such problems on Rod Laver Arena for Federer despite an impressive performance from Struff, the world number 55.

Federer, 36, broke serve once in each of the first two sets but had to recover from a break down in the third before sealing victory in the tie-break.

Asked if he had requested an evening match, Federer said: “It’s not my call, it’s [the tournament officials’] call.

“I wouldn’t have minded playing during the day because if you want to get to the top, you’ve got to thrive in all conditions.”

Belgian seventh seed David Goffin was knocked out in the second round, going down 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 7-6 (7-4) to 36-year-old Julien Benneteau, the world number 59.

Six-time champion Novak Djokovic made it through in “brutal” mid-afternoon conditions with a 4-6 6-3 6-1 6-3 win over France’s Gael Monfils.

Alexander Zverev, the fourth seed, booked a third-round meeting with Hyeon Chung of South Korea after beating fellow German Peter Gojowczyk 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-3.

Fifth seed Dominic Thiem, 24, recovered from two sets down to beat American Denis Kudla and reach the last 32.

The Austrian lost a tie-break in the opener but fought back to win 6-7 (6-8) 3-6 6-2 6-2 6-3.

In round three Thiem will face France’s 26th seed Adrian Mannarino, who beat Czech Jiri Vesely 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 5-7 6-3.

Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, the 12th seed, took four sets to see off Russian Karen Khachanov 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (0-7) 6-4.

American Sam Querrey, the 13th seed, had a surprise exit to world number 80 Marton Fucsovics, going down 6-4 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 6-2 to the Hungarian.

Czech Tomas Berdych, twice a semi-finalist in Melbourne, beat Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3 2-6 6-2 6-3.

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has urged Novak Djokovic and other male players who want higher prize money to “get together with the women”.

Djokovic used last Friday’s ATP players’ meeting at the Australian Open to propose the formation of a union to fight for greater financial reward.

Navratilova supports that but warned the 12-time Grand Slam champion paying men more than women is not the answer.

“We really need to pull together and not against each other,” she said.

• Prize money issue could put pressure on equal pay agreement

Navratilova, who won 18 major singles titles, told BBC Sport: “I think it’s great that the players should be getting more.

“The percentage of the money the majors give to the players is less than it ought to be. For me, the right way to do it would be for both the men and women to get together and say, ‘This is what we want and you need to give it to us or there won’t be a Grand Slam’.

“Certainly, giving more money to the men than the women is not a solution. That’s the wrong thing to do and I wish that Novak would see that.

“The biggest reason why these majors are so big and so important and so meaningful is because both men and women play in them and contribute equally.

“That equal prize money discussion – I thought we were done with that 10 years ago. That’s done and dusted. You should not be asking for that. It’s the wrong thing.”

Women earn the same as men at tennis majors, with the Australian Open champions receiving four million Australian dollars (£2.3m) each.

There is no suggestion that last Friday’s meeting discussed increasing men’s prize money at the expense of the women’s tour, but the issue remains a subtext to the debate.

• Djokovic denies Aussie boycott claim

There are a significant number of men who think they should be paid more. Djokovic, who feels he has been unfairly portrayed as “very greedy” in some reports of recent days, made his feelings clear at the Indian Wells tournament in March 2016.

“I think that our men’s tennis world, ATP world, should fight for more because the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches,” the 30-year-old Serb said at the time.

“Women should fight for what they think they deserve, and we should fight for what we think we deserve. As long as it’s like that and there is data and stats available upon who attracts more attention, spectators, who sells more tickets, it has to be fairly distributed.”

Navratilova, 61, has responded by saying Djokovic is not “seeing the big picture” and that the “guys just need to get over it”.

“There was a time when the women’s game was a lot more interesting than the guys’, and we never asked for more,” she continued.

“I don’t think Novak is seeing the big picture here. You need to send that signal to the world that women and men are equal and you have to back it up with the prize money.

“It’s not about quantity, quality – it’s about the drama and that we’re all in this together, and the guys just need to get over it.

“You should not be upset that someone is making just as much as you because, for the moment, your TV ratings are bigger than the other guy.

“If you just get paid like that, then Roger Federer should get paid 10 times. He should get paid more than Novak because his ratings are better – so should Roger then get a better piece of the action? It would never occur to him to ask.”

‘More noise needed’ in Margaret Court row

Navratilova said she also wishes players at the Australian Open had made “a little more noise” about the naming of the Margaret Court Arena.

Australian Court, whose 24 Grand Slam singles titles is a record, opposes same-sex marriage. Earlier on Thursday, Britain’s Laura Robson suggested the arena should be renamed.

• Robson suggests renaming Margaret Court Arena
• Konta’s views ‘don’t align’ with Court

Like 12-time Grand Slam singles champion Billie Jean King, Navratilova says she would refuse an invitation to play in the arena and believes her name will be removed from there in future, but says she is disappointed that so many leading players have avoided commenting on the issue.

“I’m not asking them to boycott the tournament or not play on the court”, she said.

“But you have to stand up for what is right and there’s no pressure on you if you say how you feel. It doesn’t affect how you play the game or hit the ball.

“You can certainly state your opinion and hold your head high. Putting your head in the sand never solved anything. You have to live with yourself, and is a potential dollar more important than speaking the truth and saying how you feel?

“It never was for me, and I wish there was a little more noise made by the players.”

Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova beat 14th seed Anastasija Sevastova in straight sets to reach the third round of the Australian Open.

The Russian, beaten in three sets by the Latvian at the US Open last year, won 6-1 7-6 (7-4) in one hour and 20 minutes.

Sharapova, 30, was broken when serving for the match at 5-4, but recovered to win the tie-break on Rod Laver Arena.

“I’m happy to get through on a day like this,” the 2008 champion said.

“When she broke back I thought: ‘Oh, it’s going to be three sets again’.”

• Konta knocked out by world number 123 Pera
• Muguruza stunned by Su-Wei
• Live scores, schedule and results

Sharapova will next face Germany’s 2016 Australian Open winner Angelique Kerber, who celebrated her 30th birthday by overcoming Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4 6-1.

Sixth seed Karolina Pliskova stormed past Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, winning 6-1 6-1 in 44 minutes, and next will play fellow Czech Lucie Safarova, who beat Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-2 6-4.

Madison Keys sailed through against Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova even faster, with the American 17th seed winning 6-0 6-1 in 41 minutes.

Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, the 28th seed and 2017 semi-finalist, was defeated 6-3 6-1 by Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

The Belarusian will play Caroline Garcia in the third round after the French eighth seed prevailed 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 8-6 over Czech Marketa Vondrousova.

Elena Vesnina became the 10th of the top 16 women’s seeds to go out by the second round, losing 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 to Japanese 20-year-old Naomi Osaka.

Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, a semi-finalist twice in the past four tournaments at Melbourne, needed three sets to see off Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko as she won 2-6 7-5 6-3.

Radwanska, the 26th seed, will play Taiwanese Hsieh Su-Wei next after the world number 88 shocked Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza 7-6 (7-1) 6-4.

British number one Johanna Konta suffered a shock defeat by world number 123 Bernarda Pera in the second round of the Australian Open.

The American won 6-4 7-5 to claim only her second win at Grand Slam level.

Ninth seed Konta had reached the quarter-finals and semi-finals on her past two visits to Melbourne Park.

She saved four match points on a hot and blustery afternoon but framed a smash on the fifth to give 23-year-old Pera the biggest win of her career.

• Live scores, schedule and results
• BBC coverage times

Pera goes on to face Barbora Strycova in the third round after the Czech 20th seed beat Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena 6-3 6-4.

Konta, 26, has now won just three of 11 matches since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals in July.

Pera lost in qualifying and only made it into the main draw of a Slam for the first time as a lucky loser, after another player withdrew through injury.

The Croatia-born American has taken full advantage, deservedly knocking out ninth seed Konta with relentless attacking off her returns and forehand.

“I was ready to leave on Monday,” said Pera. “When I got in I was so excited and to win two rounds is amazing.”

Konta could not cope with the pace and depth coming at her, while her own serve failed to make much impact, and she finished without hitting a single ace.

Despite landing 70% of her first serves, she would end the match having won just 54% of those points, while 14 winners illustrated her struggle to hit through Pera.

An overhead that was completely missed, followed soon after by a mishit smash on match point, summed up the way her game had unravelled.

It was clear from the outset that Pera was going to provide a far sterner test than her ranking suggested, with a break point going begging in the first game.

A “come on!” from Konta just for holding serve at 3-3 told of the pressure that Pera was applying, and two brilliant returns gave the American the only break of the first set.

The conditions were playing their part, with Konta missing successive backhands from mid-court as the wind swirled, but two double-faults in a row suggested the occasion might finally be getting to Pera as she slipped 2-0 behind in the second set.

That theory was debunked within minutes as Pera tore into another Konta service game, breaking straight back after the Briton telegraphed a poor drop shot.

Konta was under huge pressure now, battling well to save five break points before Pera made the seemingly decisive breakthrough at 4-3.

There was a final flash of resistance from Konta.

She staved off three match points and then broke to level at 5-5, but a desperate service game followed and she would end up flat on her back on the baseline as Pera broke for a fourth time.

With her game creaking, Konta’s spirit remained willing at least.

A fourth match point was seen off before Pera finally clinched the win of her life, when the Briton could only frame a smash into the stands on match point number five.

Analysis

British number Naomi Broady on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

Credit to Pera for outhitting Konta. She was just too good, she served incredibly intelligently, really using the out-wide, swinging lefty serve and if Jo edged over she just aced her up the ‘T’.

It’s the start of the season and I hope it doesn’t knock Jo’s confidence too much. I think the Fed Cup will be next so she can get out there and enjoy the team atmosphere.

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