Australian Open 2020: Dust storm rain causes bizarre delays
Play was delayed to start day four at Melbourne Park – for a truly unusual reason. And one veteran scribe reckons it’s never happened before in grand slam history.
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Spectators had to wait to see any play on several outside courts at Melbourne Park as sediment is cleared off courts.
A combination of rain and dust storms overnight forced organisers to push back the scheduled 11am start of play on outside courts on Thursday.
The first match on Court 3 got underway about 12.40pm, while there has been no action on Court 1573.
It was expected play would be delayed until 1pm on Court 1573 and Court 19.
It will be at least 2pm before any play takes place on the other outside courts.
It hasn’t rained since before the scheduled start time of 11am at the open.
Organisers have been working feverishly to clean courts so play can start.
Veteran tennis scribe Christopher Clarey noted that the ‘rain and dust’ explanation from the Australian Open officials was likely the first time such an excuse had been used for a grand slam delay.
"Rain and dust overnight" - this has to be a first in Grand Slam tennis https://t.co/RhYl3V02Q2
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) January 23, 2020
Weirdest weather in Melbourne for #ausopen. Basically raining dirt yesterday afternoon... temperate dropped like a rock once this mess arrived â›ˆâ˜”ï¸ pic.twitter.com/yIguWsrKps
— Craig O'Shannessy (@BrainGameTennis) January 22, 2020