Red dust and rain combined to give some of the blue courts at the Australian Open a more Roland Garros hue, adding yet another element to the freakish conditions that have plagued the first four days of the tournament.
Smoke from devastating bushfires on Australia’s east coast caused air quality in Melbourne last week to be ranked among the worst in the world, and impacted on qualifying.
So far this week, rain on three of the first four days of the tournament has caused more difficulties for players and organizers.
Play was delayed on outside courts Thursday by more showers and what a weather expert called “dirty rain” that left red dust covering some outside courts at Melbourne Park, forced the closer of some public pools and turned the water in the Yarra River which winds between the tennis complex and the city deep brown.
Melbourne Park staff used high-pressure hoses to clean court surfaces. Light rain became heavy, forcing the suspension of play on outside courts until the sun came out in the mid-afternoon.
On the plus side, there are three stadiums with retractable roofs, so the show courts will go on.
Fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev needed a medical timeout for a nose bleed before beating Spanish qualifier Pedro Martinez, 7-5, 6-1, 6-3, and advancing to the third round.
The US Open finalist called for a medical timeout while leading, 5-0, in the second set and needed treatment to stop the bleeding.
His match on Margaret Court Arena followed sixth-seeded Belinda Bencic’s 7-5, 7-5 win over 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.
“I’m super happy to get the match out of the way. I didn’t know the courts were, like, wet and dirty and all that,” Bencic said. “But for sure, it was difficult today. It was sometimes sunny, and then suddenly was almost raining. Then windy. Yeah, you just kind of have to accept it and go with it and try your best.”
On Rod Laver Arena, the center court at Melbourne Park, second-seeded Karolina Pliskova advanced to the third round with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Laura Siegemund following two-time major winner Garbine Muguruza’s 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Ajla Tomljanovic.
“I’m happy to get through—this was an ugly match for me,” Pliskova said.
Last year at Melbourne Park, Pliskova lost to eventual champion Naomi Osaka in the semifinals after saving four match points to beat Serena Williams in the quarterfinals.
Muguruzu had to wait for the stadium roof to be closed in the third set of her win, and said the need to stay patient was crucial in the tough win. On Melbourne Arena, 19th-seeded Donna Vekic beat Alize Cornet, 6-4, 6-2.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Richard Carlyon told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. the brown rain was the result of the rain front moving through a dust storm northwest of Melbourne, and not from bushfire smoke.
Tennys Sandgren, meanwhile, was looking in great shape for a big upset at the Australian Open after building a massive lead against No. 8 seed Matteo Berrettini on Wednesday.
And then, suddenly, he wasn’t.
“Two-sets-to-love up, I was feeling pretty good about myself,” the 100th-ranked Sandgren, who is from Tennessee, said about the second-round match, “but playing such a great player, that can get erased pretty quick—and I guess it did.”
Sure did. Same thing happened to another American: The 80th-ranked Tommy Paul, who was born in New Jersey and now is based in Florida, took the opening two sets against No. 18 seed Grigor Dimitrov before seeing that lead vanish, too.
In the end, though, the two Americans managed to finish the job and produce five-set upsets of opponents who were semifinalists at last year’s US Open.
Sandgren edged Berrettini, 7-6 (7), 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 7-5. Paul was two points from exiting while down, 5-4, 30-love, in the fifth set before defeating Dimitrov, a three-time major semifinalist, 6-4, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3).
“One of my crazier matches I’ve ever been a part of,” Paul said.
At one point in the fifth set, he looked at a videoboard and saw that Sandgren had gone from two sets up to winning in five.
“So I was like, ‘All right. I guess it can be done,’” Paul said.
When he got to the locker room, he ran into Sandgren, and they greeted each other with excited shouts.
“Cool that we had similar scorelines and he got the ‘W,’ too,” said Paul, who started working late last year with Brad Stine, who used to coach two-time Grand Slam runner-up Kevin Anderson.
Paul seemed to be fading against Dimitrov, after playing four sets in a rain-delayed match Tuesday. But the 22-year-old who won a French Open junior title picked up his first five-set victory; he hadn’t won a Grand Slam match of any length until this week.
Now Paul meets Marton Fucsovics of Hungary, who already beat two young players: Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, 20, and Italy’s Jannik Sinner, 18.
When the sleeveless Sandgren completed his win, he flexed his right biceps.
Sandgren improved to 4-0 in five-setters. It was also the fourth top-10 win of his career; two of the others also came at Melbourne Park, back in 2018, when Sandgren reached the quarterfinals for his best showing at a major tournament.
Up next for him is an all-American matchup against Sam Querrey, with a berth in Week 2 on the line. They played in the fourth round at Wimbledon last year, with Querrey coming out on top.
“It’s great when an American, for sure, will get through,” Sandgren said.
Image credits: AP