TOPIC:

It surely has to be a major concern to professional tennis players who have already suffered immensely during Australian Open qualifying so surely tennis officials have to consider drastic measures such as moving some matches to other cities such as Perth where the Perth Arena can be played with roof open or closed.

Rod Laver Arena must be played with the roof closed Not Negotiable. They should be prepared to adopt a similar approach to how the recent ATP Cup was spread out among 3 or 4 cities. I think it was played at Perth, Sydney and Brisbane.

We have many indoor venues across the country that could be used although basketball is in season and that could clash and then there is the question of court quality.

I'm just putting it out there that Perth could host some matches although I think the Perth Wildcats play most of their remaining games at home as they were forced to play away due to the ATP Cup.

Right now Melbourne air quality is rated the worst in the world, a nightmare situation for the Australian Open. Does Margaret Court Arena have a roof that can be closed? A shed load of matches are played on outside courts at these slams so maybe it's not paramount that all matches are played inside big indoor arenas which opens up more possibilities in other cities.

Move it here 100%

No body knows what the long term implication is of being exposed to this level of smoke and Tennis Australia has a duty of care to the players to not subject them to the risk level that some players experienced yesterday. Player welfare needs to come above everything else in this situation. If the event needs to be moved then so be it. It is the Australian Open not the Melbourne Open. At least move the qualifiers this week to a less smokey city.

Any sign of smoke clearing

Bazza wrote: Any sign of smoke clearing

Yes its looking as if it might clear with a southerly change coming in later today but they are worried about it returning on Saturday.

mikeh wrote:

Bazza wrote: Any sign of smoke clearing

Yes its looking as if it might clear with a southerly change coming in later today but they are worried about it returning on Saturday.

Could really stuff up the tournament. should move it,

Bazza wrote:

mikeh wrote:

Bazza wrote: Any sign of smoke clearing

Yes its looking as if it might clear with a southerly change coming in later today but they are worried about it returning on Saturday.

Could really stuff up the tournament. should move it,

You would hope they would be looking at contingencies right now, with the option of maybe divvying out some of the early rounds to non smoke affected cities including Perth. Bit of a pain with all the travel for the players but much better than getting sick inhaling too much smoke

Yep, prob end up all east coast to keep travel down, Brisbane would be ready to roll.

I think Qld has had their fair share of bushfires also and the fires in the east are a lot closer to Brisbane, not sure if smoke drifts north over there.

Could not believe it when I saw that poor girl collapsing on court and then seeing the roof was open, what were they thinking. Totally agree that games, at least all qualifying and most of the early rounds should be moved to Brissy and Perth where the air quality is so much better. But can you imagine the Vic/NSW controlled Tennis Australia moving anything to the West??