MELBOURNE, Australia - Maria Sharapova was already soaking in ice by the time the extreme weather warning arrived.
It seemed bafflingly late to the four-time major winner, who felt fried after playing for 3 ½ hours in searing heat to reach the third round of the Australian Open. She didn’t know it when she was out on Rod Laver Arena tangling with Karin Knapp on Thursday, but tournament organizers had finally conceded it was unsafe to keep players on court on the third consecutive day of what is shaping as a once-in-a-century heat wave.
Matches were suspended for four hours as temperatures topped 109 degrees before subsiding, but that didn’t apply to Sharapova and Knapp because they were already into the third set and the tournament’s extreme heat policy only kicks in at the end of sets in progress.
Sharapova thinks it absurd that a vague formula for measuring ambient temperature, wind and humidity leaves the tournament referee as the sole arbiter of extreme heat - without input from the players.
“We have never received any emails or, you know, warnings about the weather or what to do,” she told a news conference an hour or so after her 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 victory over Knapp.
Then she recalled: “Actually, I did receive one, I think, while I was in the ice bath a few minutes ago - I was like, ‘That’s a little too late.’”
Not long after tournament director Craig Tiley appeared outdoors in a television interview, dressed in jacket and tie, to explain how the decisions are reached, Sharapova said organizers should be telling the tour trainers, medical staff, officials and players so that everyone is in the loop.
The only matches that continued in the afternoon were on the two main show courts under closed roofs, which in hindsight was a good thing when the lightning and rain arrived later in the evening to again delay matches on outside courts.
Top-ranked Rafael Nadal was pleased to avoid the heat and the lightning. The temperatures had dropped when two-time defending champion Victoria Azarenka and Wimbledon champion Andy Murray won the featured women’s and men’s night matches on the center court.
Roger Federer was content to find his way out to a secondary court at Melbourne Park for the first time in a decade so that he could play under the roof on Hisense Arena. He and Nadal played at roughly the same time, also a rarity here, and won in three sets.
Others advancing on the men’s side included 2008 finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 11 Milos Raonic, No. 22 Grigor Dimitrov and American Donald Young, who beat No. 24 Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.
No. 5-ranked Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, was eliminated in a shocking 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 defeat to Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.
The women playing the early matches experienced the worst of the heat Thursday, with No. 11 Simona Halep winning all but one game in the last two sets against American Varvara Lepchenko, who needed treatment and said she was almost delirious. No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 8 Jelena Jankovic and No. 13 Sloane Stephens advanced in the relative cool of the evening.
The scorching heat has been the talking point all week in Melbourne. Others have described the decision not to suspend matches earlier in temperatures regularly topping 108 degrees as inhumane.
No. 25-seeded Alize Cornet, who plays Sharapova next, sobbed on court after her second-round victory, saying “It was an oven. It was burning.”
Murray said it was difficult for everyone involved.
“It’s not a good place to be in because the heat is bearable - just,” he said, adding that the stakeholders needed to discuss the heat rules and make them easier to understand.
“But let’s also remember this is the first time it’s ever been like this,” he said. “I heard it was 100 years they’ve never had weather like this four days in a row. So you’ve got to expect that’s probably not going to happen again for a while.”
Australian Open glance MELBOURNE, Australia - A look at the fourth day of the Australian Open tennis championships on Thursday: WEATHER High of 109 degrees. The extreme heat policy was enforced for four hours in the mid-afternoon, with matches suspended on outer courts and roofs closed on the two main arenas.
ATTENDANCE Day session 33,419;
Night 19,807; Total 53,226.
SEEDED WINNERS Men No. 1 Rafael Nadal, No, 4 Andy Murray, No. 6; Roger Federer, No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No.
11 Milos Raonic, No. 16 Kei Nishikori, No. 18 Gilles Simon, No. 22 Grigor Dimitrov, No. 25 Gael Monfils, No. 26 Feliciano Lopez, No. 27 Benoit Paire.
Women No. 2 Victoria Azarenka, No.
3 Maria Sharapova, No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 8 Jelena Jankovic, No.
10 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 11 Simona Halep, No. 13 Sloane Stephens, No. 16 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 20 Dominika Cibulkova, No. 25 Alize Cornet, No. 29 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
SEEDED LOSERS Men No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro, No. 24 Andreas Seppi, No.
31 Fernando Verdasco. Women No. 32 Magdalena Rybarikova.
STAT OF THE DAY 63 number of consecutive matches played by Roger Federer at Rod Laver Arena until his Thursday match at the secondary Hisense Arena.
QUOTE OF THE DAY “It was an oven … it was burning” - Alize Cornet on the heat.
PLAYING TODAY No. 1 Serena Williams vs. Daniel Hantuchova, No. 4 Li Na vs.
Lucie Safarova, No. 14 Ana Ivanovic vs. No. 17 Sam Stosur; No. 2 Novak Djokovic vs. Denis Istomin, No. 3 David Ferrer vs. No. 29 Jeremy Chardy.
FORECAST TODAY Expected maximum of 111 degrees, but a late change is expected to make things cooler for the weekend.
Sports, Pages 27 on 01/17/2014