Australian Open matches suspended due to extreme heat at Melbourne Park
The Australian Open organizers had to activate their extreme heat protocols as Melbourne Park experienced scorching weather conditions. Play was halted on the outdoor courts shortly after 2:30 p.m. AEDT, while the roofs were closed on the arena venues to allow matches to continue indoors.
The decision to suspend play was made when the heat stress scale reached its maximum reading of five. The temperature soared to 38 degrees Celsius around 3 p.m. AEDT, two degrees below the predicted high.
Matches on the outdoor courts will not resume before 5:30 p.m. AEDT. Day seven commenced early, with the first set of matches starting at 10:30 a.m. AEDT.
Among those who completed their third-round matches was women's sixth seed Jessica Pegula, who defeated Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-3, 6-2 on Margaret Court Arena. Pegula finished her victory in an hour and six minutes, avoiding the hotter conditions that hit Melbourne Park in the afternoon.
"It started to get a little hot," Pegula said in her post-match media conference. "I just tried to use the ice towels as much as I could, pre-cooling a lot. Not necessarily because it felt that hot at the moment, but if it did start to creep up or if something happened and we went into a third set, I definitely think it could kind of zap you pretty quick. The fact that we haven't been playing that much in the hot temperatures is what gets people, I think. You have no kind of tolerance to it."
Defending champion Madison Keys, who faces fellow American Pegula in the fourth round, also played in the morning. Ninth-seeded Keys defeated Karolína Plíšková 6-3, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena, though she was not bothered by the heat.
"I didn't really notice it that much, to be honest," she said. "Coming off the court, I was actually kind of surprised by how hot it was actually reading. It didn't feel that bad to me out there, but it obviously helps finishing as early as we did."
Saturday will not be the only day the Australian Open will have to contend with extreme heat. Tuesday's long-range forecast predicts temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius.
