Melbourne, where the tournament is held, is seeing a third consecutive¹ day of heat above 40C, with temperatures of 41.7C (107F) on Thursday. 

 

Australia's Climate Council says in a report that the number of hot days in the country has "more than doubled".

 

2013 was recently declared Australia's hottest year on record.

 

The Climate Council report attributed the development to climate change, caused by greenhouse gases.

 

Fire bans are in place across the states of Victoria and South Australia, as firefighters battle bushfires.

 

In Victoria, several fire emergency warnings have been issued, as fires in the Northern Grampians area merged² into one "out of control" bushfire and residents were urged to evacuated³.

 

 

Australian Open organisers said their extreme heat policy was in force, with matches on outside courts being suspended at the end of their sets. 

 

Matches at Rod Laver Arena⁴ and Hisense Arena would continue with a closed roof, they said in a statement.

 

Play was scheduled to resume on outside courts at 18:00 local time (07:00 GMT).

 

Tournament officials say temperature, wind direction and humidity are taken into account when implementing⁵ the extreme heat policy.

 

The announcement came mid-afternoon with the hottest part of the day approaching, the BBC's Jon Donnison in Melbourne reports.

 

On Tuesday, a tennis player and a ball boy fainted in the heat during the tournament. Organisers were criticised for allowing the tournament to continue.

 

Melbourne resident James Hickey told the BBC: "The past couple of nights have been insanely hot."

 

"In my suburb of Brunswick we lost power for about three hours on Tuesday night because it was so hot. The traffic lights were out, nobody could run their air conditioning or watch TV."

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