Play at the Australian Open was delayed on Thursday due to the after-effects of a dust storm that hit Melbourne on Thursday night.
Heavy rain brought with it a large amount of earth and, although conditions improved on Thursday morning, the outside courts were covered with a thin layer of dust and had to be cleaned before matches could start.
Last week qualifying was disrupted by smoky haze from the wildfires while the first day of main draw action on Monday coincided with the wettest day in the city for nearly a decade.
Watson slumps to heavy defeat
Heather Watson made a meek exit from the Australian Open with a heavy loss to 16th seed Elise Mertens in the second round.
The British number two claimed her best win for two-and-a-half years over world number 17 Mertens in the quarter-finals of the Hobart International last week.
Watson therefore arrived in Melbourne with confidence soaring, and she battled superbly to beat Kristyna Pliskova and the wind in the opening round on Wednesday.
But Watson could not find anything like the same level against Mertens, with the Belgian winning the final eight games and the match 6-3 6-0 in just 56 minutes.
Play was delayed on Thursday because of heavy rain that dumped a layer of dust on the outside courts, and it was late afternoon by the time Watson and Mertens began their contest.
There was still a reddish-brown hue to the court, and Watson made an inauspicious start by dropping serve in the opening game.
She recovered the break straight away and then held serve, but that would be the only time she would lead in the match, with Watson simply making too many errors against an opponent who retrieves extremely well and is capable of punishing a short ball.
Things went downhill swiftly for Watson in the second set, the fight draining out of the 27-year-old, who won only eight points in the six games.
Watson pulled no punches in her assessment of her performance, saying: "I felt my level wasn't there today. My movement. I was a millimetre or a second too slow to everything. I was letting her dictate.
"As the match went on, she played better and was more aggressive. I am just not happy with my performance at all."
It has nevertheless been a good two weeks for Watson, and she added: "I remember last year this time I would have be happy to win a single match.
"The fact I have played so many here in Australia, feeling good, in good spirits. I wish I didn't lose the way I lost. I wish at least I got closer in the score. It happens. Now I will go home."
Bellis reaches third round after horrific injury battle
Before Coco Gauff, CiCi Bellis was tennis' 15-year-old prodigy, and the American is finally back in the third round of a grand slam after a scarcely-believable injury nightmare.
Bellis defeated 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova at the US Open in 2014 and broke into the top 100 aged 16.
But, last October, after 20 months out of the game and four operations on her right arm, one of which involved breaking a bone to make it shorter, Bellis was told by a doctor that she would never play tennis again.
Thankfully, she sought a second opinion for what turned out to be a minor issue and on Thursday defeated 20th seed Karolina Muchova 6-4 6-4 to reach the third round of the Australian Open.
Bellis, now 20, said: "I'm really happy. It's been a really long time. Just being back here is a blessing, let alone winning, so I feel really great.
"A year ago at this time I didn't know if I was going to play again. Before each surgery I was just hoping one day I could get back to tennis."
Bellis began to experience pain in her wrist early in 2018 and underwent surgery for three tendon tears before a second operation to remove bone spurs in her elbow.
But her wrist was still not right and it was at that point that her surgeon proposed breaking her ulna bone in half, shortening it, and joining it back together with a metal plate.
"My mum and I were on the phone with the doctor," said Bellis. "He was telling us this and we were looking at each other and we were laughing because we had never heard of something so barbaric."
She entered this tournament on a protected ranking, with her current position down at 600, and will face 16th seed Elise Mertens in the third round.
Elsewhere: Dart follows Watson on the plane home
It was a good day for the big names, with second seed Karolina Pliskova beating Laura Siegemund 6-3 6-3 while fourth seed Simona Halep was a 6-2 6-4 winner against Harriet Dart.
Sixth seed Belinda Bencic staged a second-set comeback to beat Jelena Ostapenko 7-5 7-5 and there were also wins for former champion Angelique Kerber and Garbine Muguruza but last year's semi-finalist Danielle Collins was beaten by Yulia Putintseva.
