Toxic fumes from huge fires in southern Australia disrupted the Melbourne Tennis Open on Wednesday (January 15th) for the second day in a row. The qualifying matches started an hour late, around 1 p.m. locally (3 a.m. in Paris), in better but still foggy conditions.
The air quality in the city was " very bad " at 9 a.m., a little less degraded than Tuesday when it was qualified as "Dangerous" by the Victoria State Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Slovenian Dalila Jakupovic then had to withdraw from the first round of qualifying after suffering from a violent coughing attack on the court.
"The conditions at Melbourne Park are constantly monitored", said the Australian Tennis Federation, which is responsible for hosting the first major tournament of the season scheduled to start on January 20 and end on February 2.
Expected rains
Resumption of play decisions will be made in concert with the tournament medical team, meteorological services and EPA scientists, said the Federation, which has been under pressure to take action in recent weeks due to the deterioration of the game. air caused by the deadly fires that have ravaged the country since September and are approaching major cities.
Heaven could provide respite for players, however, as the Victoria State Weather Office predicts thunderstorms throughout Wednesday that may be accompanied by heavy rain.
Authorities on Tuesday advised residents of Melbourne to "Stay inside with doors and windows closed", but the organizers kept the games going despite the heat of the Australian summer.
In addition to Jakupovic, Canada's Eugénie Bouchard had suffered chest pain, most likely due to breathing difficulties, and Australian Bernard Tomic said he had difficulty breathing.
Several players have criticized the decision to play matches under these conditions, such as Ukrainian Elina Svitolina or Frenchman Gilles Simon.
Retractable roofs and indoor courts
"Why do we have to wait for something serious to do something?" ", tweeted the Ukrainian, 5th player in the world and finalist of the last Masters, accompanying her message with a graph with the weather data of the day in Melbourne.
Why do we need to wait for something bad to happen to do an action 🤷🏼♀️🥵 #Melbourne https://t.co/bYpXyQAfKe
Former world number 1 Maria Sharapova, who participated in an exhibition tournament in Kooyong, a suburb of Melbourne, also preferred not to go after her duel with the German Laura Siegemund (6-7 (4/7) , 5-5), by mutual agreement with his opponent, due to the playing conditions "Extreme".
Australian Open boss Craig Tiley swept the critics, saying that "Everyone received an email", explaining that any decision was made after expert consultations. Tiley had said last week that a cancellation of the Australian Open, which would be a first since the Second World War, was unlikely, while the world number 2 Novak Djokovic, president of the Players Council within ATP, considered that this question should be asked.
The Australian Open complex has three courts with a retractable roof, as well as eight indoor courts that would be less affected by air pollution.
Since the devastating fires started in September, at least 28 people and 1 billion animals have died in Australia, more than 2,000 homes have been destroyed and an area of 100,000 square kilometers (10 million hectares) – more eight times the area of Ile-de-France – went up in smoke.
The death toll fell from 27 to 28 on Wednesday, authorities confirmed that a firefighter who died in a road accident in late November was fighting a fire.
