The soaring temperatures on the second day of the Australian open has failed to derail players from their desired goals.
Exceeding 30 degrees at Melbourne Park, once again players was forced to battle in the hot and humid conditions. Whilst the heat was significantly warmer than other tournaments around the world, it failed to trigger the tournament’s ‘extreme-heat’ policy. Introduced in 19998, the policy comes into force when the temperature reaches 40 degrees and a ‘wet bulb‘ temperature of 32.5. Whilst the rule wasn’t used on Tuesday, some players were perfectly aware of the conditions.
“It was not cold. Let’s put it that way.” Alexander Zverev said following his win over Robin Haase.
“The balls were different. Obviously it was flying much more. The days before, it wasn’t that hot, so I didn’t really get used to the conditions that well. So it took me a little bit. But, I don’t mind these kind of conditions.” He added.
Playing in these conditions, the objective is to win the match as quickly as possible. This was a target successfully met by title contender Karolina Pliskova, who thrashed Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2, 6-0, in just over an hour.
”It was fine. I don’t know how many degrees it was, but I felt okay.” She said.
“But I was there an hour, so… I think if I would stay longer, it would be worse.”
11am and already 33 degrees Celsius in Melbourne. Feel for this chap… pic.twitter.com/5CeiYebq6H
— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) 17 January 2017
Whilst some was very aware of the heat, others didn’t give it two thoughts. Johanna Konta was more concerned about the conditions in Sydney than Melbourne. Last week the Brit lifted her second WTA title after defeating Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets.
“I’m very happy to have come through, I think more specifically to difficulties that my opponent presented today more so than the weather. I mean, it was hot, but last week in Sydney, we experienced something a lot hotter. So I think it was always cool in comparison.” The ninth seed explained.
Former champion Serena Williams was also unhindered by the heat during her win over Belinda Bencic, saying that it wasn’t a issue.
“It was fine. I didn’t have a problem with the heat.” She said.
According to the UK Met Office, temperatures at Melbourne Park is set to plummet over the weekends to the low 20s.
