Thai tennis professional Luksika Kumkhum was eliminated from the Australian Open on Friday, losing to Petra Martic in the third round.
Croatia's Martic sweated through a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Luksika to reach the last 16 on her 26th birthday.
"I felt tired after leading 5-4 in the third set. Martic had been well prepared and she deserved the win," Thai Rath online quoted Luksika as saying after the match.
Martic said she had taken pain killers after the second set to deal with blisters on her feet because of the heat coming through her shoes from the roasting court surface at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
"That was really ugly," she said of the weather.
The Grand Slam tournament's extreme heat policy came under increasing scrutiny as players struggled through a second consecutive day of 40°C heat at Melbourne Park.