Australian Jordan Thompson blew up after extreme heat forced his second-round match at the Australian Open to be suspended.
Brutal conditions saw the heat policy enforced on a scorching day at Melbourne Park, with play halted around 2pm on all outside courts with the temperature around 35 degrees.
Thompson was locked in a fierce battle with American J.J. Wolf on Court 3 when play was halted. After losing the first set 6-3, Thompson snared a break to claim a 3-1 lead when the umpire announced play would be paused.
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“When has that ever happened? I’ve been here when it’s like 45 degrees,” he raged at the chair umpire.
“When do we come back on?” Wolf asked.
After the umpire replied that it would require the oppressive conditions to lessen, a frustrated Thompson replied: “That’s not going to be for hours!”“It’s too hot,” Wolf said.
The Australian Open introduced a new Heat Stress Scale from 1-5 in 2019 – with five the highest possible and requiring play to be suspended after a tie-break or after an even number of games in a set.
The scale measures multiple environmental factors: air temperature, radiant heat, humidity and wind speed, based on readings taken at five different locations around the tournament. It was aimed at providing more accurate data on the impacts of conditions on players than a simple wet bulb globe reading.
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Earlier this month, organiser Craig Tiley slammed claims the Open should be rescheduled for a cooler time of year.
“I thought it was absolutely ridiculous, a bizarre claim,” Tiley said. “You talk to every player, this is the season. It starts in January, it starts here in Australia.
“It finishes with Davis Cup late on the men’s side and not as late on the women’s side but I do think it’s a long season.
“We’ve been talking about that for a long time, but Australia is the summer, Australia is January and this event is – from the players’ perspective – one of their favourite 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 normalised.
“They know what they need to do.”