By Lidia Kelly
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The fastest moving thing at the Australian Open on Sunday was not a tennis ball but a $25 poncho at the tournament’s gift shop as wet weather wreaked havoc with the action on the opening day of the Grand Slam.
Persistent rain forced the cancellation of a quarter of the scheduled singles matches and fans not lucky enough to have a ticket for the main showcourts, which have roofs, sought shelter from the elements around the Melbourne Park precinct.
The main gift shop ran out of ponchos by early afternoon and umbrellas, priced at $35 and $40, were selling like hot cakes forcing staff to continually restock.
Thousands of fans braved the elements hoping the rain would abate but four hours after the start of the first matches on the outer courts, a continuous stream of fans headed for the exit.
“Lovely time here, beautiful sitting in the arena, nice watching the water collect, but we didn’t get any tennis,” said local academic Alex with more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
“We’ve paid 60 bucks and haven’t seen anything.”
She and her friend Liz were leaving disappointed, not knowing whether any of the matches would resume and at what point.
“A little bit of goodwill would’ve been nice, a little bit of information sharing in the stadium,” Alex said.
“We had no announcements that would say, ‘Look, we’re expecting XYZ, this is what’s happening with the weather,’ – nothing.”
Tennis Australia said in a statement that updates were shared via screens in the precinct, the tournament’s app and on Australian Open social media.
By 6 p.m. eight of the 32 matches had been cancelled with organisers set to use the cushion of the extra day, which was first added to the tournament last year to reschedule.
Not everyone in the crowd of 55,704 was disappointed, however.
For Sydney teenager Tony Mai, even the lack of action could not spoil his first experience of his home Grand Slam.
“I mean, the weather is not that great, but everything is like so real – I’ve been watching it since I was little and now I see it in real life,” said the 15-year-old, who has been playing tennis for 10 years and won a junior tournament last year.
“I’ll be here for the rest of the day.”
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
