「泥」で全豪ＯＰの開始が大幅遅延、森林火災の煙が原因か

【メルボルンＡＦＰ＝時事】異常気象の影響を受けている全豪オープンテニスは23日、前夜に降った「汚れた雨」の影響でコートに泥が残り、プレーができない状況になる新たな問題に直面した。（写真は全豪オープンテニス4日目、前夜に降った雨の影響で汚れたコートを清掃する作業員）
　作業員が水切りや高圧洗浄機を使ってサーフェスの清掃に当たる間、ほとんどの屋外コートでは試合開始が遅延。結局さらに雨が降ってきた影響もあり、大半のコートでは当初の予定から４時間遅れの午後３時まで試合が始まらなかった。今回の汚れた雨は、オーストラリアで猛威を振るっている森林火災で発生した上空の煙が原因だとみられている。
　猛暑の対応には慣れている全豪オープンだが、今年は気温以外の問題に泣かされており、予選期間中は危険レベルに達した煙霧の影響で出場選手がせき込んだり、呼吸に苦しんだりし、批判の声が多く上がった。
　煙の問題は大会初日の２０日までに収まったが、今度は豪雨にたたられ、予定していた試合を半分しか消化できずに日程が過密化。さらに２２日には強風に見舞われ、ボールが思わぬ方向に飛んだり、空中で揺れたりし、選手たちは悩まされていた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/01/24-08:23）

An Australian Open that has been hit by weather extremes faced a new challenge on Thursday: dirty rain, after overnight downpours left courts muddy and unplayable.
Workers armed with squeegees and high-pressure hoses rushed to clean the dirty surfaces, delaying matches by more than two hours on most of the courts.
Due to the rain and dust overnight the outside courts need high pressure cleaning, organisers tweeted.
Our team is working across Melbourne Park to prepare the outside courts for play, they added.
The dirty rain, blamed on smoke hanging in the air from Australia's raging bushfires, is just the latest hazard at a tournament that has been beset by meteorological mishaps.
Smog from the deadly wildfires hit hazardous levels during qualifying, leaving players with coughing fits and breathing problems and triggering a rash of complaints.
Although the haze cleared before the tournament's start on Monday it was replaced by torrential rain, which wiped out half of the day's schedule and caused a backlog of matches.
Strong winds then buffeted Melbourne Park on Wednesday, giving players further problems as balls blew off-course and wobbled in the air.
The year's opening Grand Slam is more accustomed to a different kind of problem: extreme heat, which frequently causes players to don ice towels and occasionally halts matches.
Melbourne, on Australia's southern coast, has a well-earned reputation for changeable weather, as it is prone to both cold Antarctic winds blowing across the Southern Ocean, and hot Outback breezes -- sometimes in the same day.
Extreme weather is a growing concern in Australia after the bushfire emergency of recent months, which has left 29 dead and ravaged vast swathes of the country, torching thousands of homes.