MELBOURNE, Australia -- The Australian Open was thrown into chaos on opening day of the tournament as wild weather shut down the majority of court activity for over six hours and forced eight matches to be rescheduled to Monday.
The year's first Grand Slam had only been underway for 65 minutes when rain -- paired with thunder and lightning -- hit Melbourne Park a little after midday, suspending play on all outdoor courts and leaving tournament organisers scrambling to avoid a backlog of matches.
Play was able to continue on Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena, and John Cain Arena throughout the day, the three venues at the complex which have retractable roofs installed.
The delay was initially supposed to last two hours, but heavy rain continued to fall throughout the afternoon, not easing until 5:30pm local time.
After the outdoor courts had been dried, play was able to resume at 6:30pm (AEDT), but not before tournament organisers had rescheduled eight matches. Those impacted include 17th seed Marta Kostyuk and 27th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The rescheduled matches will be played Monday in what's shaping as a bumper day two of the tournament, with 10-time champion Novak Djokovic, men's world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff, and Iga Swiatek all in action.
Should the matches not be completed on Day 2, there would still be scope for them to be played Tuesday. In 2024, the Australian Open shifted the start day of the tournament from the traditional Monday to Sunday, allowing three days for the 128 first-round singles matches to be completed.