The blistering heat of 36 degrees in Melbourne, Australia, is causing problems for the tennis stars. At the Australian Open, the first games have now been played, if they do not take place in the air-conditioned hall but on the pitch.
At the Australian Open, the heat of 36 degrees caused an interruption on Tuesday. All uncovered courts at Melbourne Park suspended tennis and training around 2pm (local time) after reaching level 5 on the so-called ‘heat stress scale’. Game operations continued in the three covered stadiums Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and John Cain Arena.
In the Margaret Court Arena, Olympic champion Alexander Zverev will play his first round duel against Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas on Tuesday afternoon (local time). The matches of Jan-Lennard Struff against the American Tommy Paul, Wimbledon semi-finalist Tatjana Maria against the Italian Lucrezia Stefanini and Laura Siegemund against Lucia Bronzetti from Italy were all supposed to take place on secondary courts and were delayed -Scale” includes four climate factors: air temperature, radiant heat, humidity and wind speed. These values are measured in real time at five locations throughout the facility. The scale ranges from 1 (moderate game conditions) to 5 (game disruption).
