Right: Maria Shaparova takes a break and dons an ice-filled cooling vest.
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Further implications
As one of only four highly prestigious grand slam events held each year, it is impossible to imagine that there would ever be a boycott of the Australian Open; however, it seems likely that a number of influential players and their national support networks will be putting a strong negative view to their respective player associations about the weather conditions that are sometimes encountered there.
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the body which protects the interests of male professional tennis players. It has been reported that the extreme heat policy which is employed at the Australian Open will be discussed at the next ATP player council meeting, in Indian Wells in March, 2014. This is claimed to be in response to the difficulties encountered in this year's Australian Open tournament as a result of the heat.
The ATP does not administer any of the grand slam events. (The Australian Open is one of the grand slams, along with the French Open, the US Open and Wimbledon.) The Australian Open is overseen by Tennis Australia; however, the ATP is in a position to influence the manner in which the Australian Open is conducted.
The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the international body which looks after the interests of women tennis players. The WTA has applied an 'extreme heat rule' in the women's tour since 1992, which allows for an optional 10-minute break before the deciding set. This rule was subsequently taken up by Tennis Australia and is applied at the Australian Open. It therefore seems likely that if the ATP and/or the WTA were to make some recommendations in relation to the Australian Open, Tennis Australia may well take them up.
The director of the Australian Open, Craig Tiley, has defended the decisions taken in relation to implementing the 'extreme heat policy' at the 2014 championship. He has argued that player opinion as to whether some games should have been suspended and the roofs closed was divided and that the referee has sought to act in a way that is fair to all. However, it seems unlikely that the assurances offered by Craig Tiley will be the end of the matter.
Over the history of the Australian Open the tournament has been subject to significant change. The location and venues have varied; the time of year in which the championship is held has been altered; and there has been a growing number of provisions put in place to deal with the impact of high temperatures on the players. The impression sometimes created that the Australian Open is immutable is inaccurate.
A number of factors seem likely to affect Tennis Australia's response to this recent controversy surrounding extreme temperatures at the Australian Open. The first is that the issue has aroused a significant, widely-publicised response from a significant number of players, including British champion, Andy Murray, and Canadian Frank Dancevic. High profile Russian, Maria Sharapova, has also voiced concerns. The consequence of this has been that player heat distress and the relevant policies of the Australian Open have been treated extensively by British, Canadian and United States media.
Further, the Australian Open is widely televised around the world, including in the United States, Britain, Canada, Japan, Russia and China. The 2012 worldwide television audience for the Australian Open was 349 million. This means that the international impact the game has is enormous and it has long been a major drawcard for international tourists. It is the biggest sporting event in the world every January and is credited with delivering an economic boost of some $240 million to Victoria annually and creating 446,000 visitor nights in Melbourne and surrounds.
This means that the message sent to potential spectators regarding the experience they will enjoy at the Australian Open has to be positive. This was not uniformly the case during the opening days of the 2014 championship, where television coverage revealed large numbers of seats empty, vacated by fans who could no longer stand the heat. Andy Murray stated, 'It looks terrible for the whole sport when people are collapsing, ball kids are collapsing, people in the stands are collapsing. That's obviously not great.'
Irrespective of the seriousness of the health risks posed to players by the heat Tennis Australia seems unlikely to be able to ignore the potential impact on spectator patronage. This is particularly important as it has been predicted by climate authorities that climate change is likely to see conditions in Melbourne getting hotter for longer in January. The ultimate solution may well be that the date of the championship has to be shifted till later in the year. Champions such as Roger Federer have previously requested such a shift as they have argued that the first half of January is too early in the year for players to have prepared sufficiently.
However, a time shift may well be too dramatic a solution to be adopted immediately. In the short term there are likely to be changes to the extreme heat policy and its implementation. More breaks seem likely and referee discretion may well be reduced in a way that sees special provisions applied earlier and automatically. Allowing players and spectators to be able to anticipate confidently what dispensations will be allowed when is obviously important.