The Australian Open has been thrown into further disarray by the Melbourne weather, with organisers scrambling to get the singles draws back on track.
Tuesday’s extreme heat then bucketing rain forced the postponement – including mid-match in many cases – of 22 matches (10 men’s and 12 women’s).
The Australian Open tried to pack them all into the schedule for Wednesday, only releasing the order of play close to midnight – something plenty of players were far from happy about.
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But Wednesday morning saw persistent rain set in, causing play on all the outside courts to be postponed from the scheduled 11am start time – the announcement of a new starting time coming through in painful 30-minute intervals.
After 2pm, organisers were forced to take drastic action.
Three of the top seeds – #1 Iga Swiatek, #3 Jessica Pegula, and #6 Maria Sakkari – all finished their second round matches on the (roofed) courts early on Wednesday, while 24 other women hadn’t even completed their first round matches.
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The men’s and women’s doubles competition was set to begin on Wednesday, but organisers quickly cancelled 16 scheduled doubles matches.
The three enclosed courts will also have an additional match added to the schedule at the end of the day session (but before the night session begins at 7pm).
The updated order of play has not been confirmed yet.
Organisers are likely to continue to postpone doubles matches in coming days in order to prioritise the singles draw.
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After her second-round victory over Camila Osorio on Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday, world number one Iga Swiatek slammed said: “I was in a pretty comfortable position that I was able to play this match, and know that it was going to be under the roof and not going to be rescheduled.
“But it was really bad for the other players that had to wait yesterday, a whole day, because it’s really tiring and they’re probably going to have to stay another day on site.
“There’s nothing I think the tournament organisers can do but I’m surprised that they didn’t put yesterday’s matches, like, earlier today on the stadiums [the covered courts].”
MORE TO COME
