Due to Melbourne‘s infamous four seasons in one-day weather, nearly half a day of matches at the Australian Open was postponed. Some players were dissatisfied with the schedule because the Australian Open’s rain delay made it impossible to play on outdoor courts. Melbourne was experiencing high heat up until Tuesday, but on Wednesday, the city was drenched in the rain, forcing the postponement of numerous games by 4.5 hours, often in the middle of them.
The match was scheduled to begin at 11 am (GMT), however, continuous rains delayed it
After days of extreme heat and fires, the weather service has issued squall warnings for Port Phillip Bay and severe thunderstorm warnings for several areas of central Victoria. The AO 2023 organizers decided to fit all the postponed games only into the Wednesday program, which resulted in some games running past midnight. Many athletes were not at all pleased with the new scheduling. The match was scheduled to begin at 11 am (GMT), however, continuous rains delayed it and the matches were postponed until 1 pm. However, only games on the three significant stadiums with roofs could start on schedule.
After a delay between 2 pm and 5 pm caused by extreme heat that reached above 37 degrees, 47 of the 64 matches that were supposed to be played were still unfinished. There were still more than 30 first-round match series to be played when play was again suspended at about 8 o’clock.
The majority of the women’s singles matches that were still to be played were subsequently postponed till Wednesday after the tournament’s organizers made a decision after 9 p.m. Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, and Maria Sakkari, three of the top seeds, all concluded their second-round matches early on Wednesday at the roofed courts, but the other 24 women were unable to even finish their first-round matches.
Briton Top doubles player Jamie Murray, who is also Andy Murray’s brother, criticised the late Tuesday night revelation of Wednesday’s schedule on Twitter. Many players had already gone to bed when the timetable was altered late in the evening, completely oblivious of when they would begin the following day. “11 am start on outside courts. Players arrive approx 8-8:30 am. The schedule was released at 11:30 pm. Unfair”, he wrote on Twitter.
The tournament’s organizers were compelled to fit in all of the first-round matches
Tennis writer Jose Morgado also shared similar sentiments and wrote on Twitter, “Past midnight in Melbourne and no order of play for tomorrow apart from the three biggest stadiums”. The tournament’s organizers were compelled to fit in all of the first-round matches because it was predicted that the afternoon’s temperatures would remain high, which resulted in several players continuing their matches well into the night. The Australian Open’s chief executive, Craig Tiley, reacted angrily to those who called for a rescheduling of the competition earlier this month when temperatures were not at their peak.
“You talk to every player, this is the season. It starts in January. It starts here in Australia.” “But Australia is the summer, Australia is January and this event is, from the players’ perspective, one of their favorite places to play.” “They’re coming here earlier, we’re now seeing players here for six weeks, for seven weeks and the preparation for the Australian summer is very normalized, they know what they need to do.”
