The fierce heat sometimes seen at the Australian Open did not take long to bear its teeth but James Ward and Dan Evans battled through it to record excellent starts to their qualifying campaign. Evans defeated top qualifying seed Luca Vanni of Italy, the world No 104, 7-6 6-4 in Tuesday's first round and Ward overcame back problems to beat Canada's Peter Polansky by the same margin. Although both players began at 10am the temperatures were quickly heading towards an expected high of 41 degrees and Evans patiently softballed his opponent to come back from a break down in the first set to win.