Murray warns of risk of tragedy as temperatures soar at Australian Open
Organisers under fire after cases of fainting and vomiting in the searing heat
Players fainted and vomited and a ball boy collapsed as the Australian Open boiled in one of the hottest days in its history on Tuesday, prompting Britain's Andy Murray to warn organisers they were risking a tragedy.
The Wimbledon champion queried if it was safe to play in 40 degrees Celsius heat and said the sight of players and ball boys breaking down "looks terrible for the whole sport".
"Whether it's safe or not, I don't know. You just got to be very careful these days," said the world No 4 after his first-round win against Japan's Go Soeda. "There's been some issues in other sports with, you know, players having heart attacks. I don't know exactly why that is. Or collapsing."
It looks terrible for the whole sport when people are collapsing, ball kids are collapsing, people in the stands are collapsing
In temperatures that touched 42.4 degrees, Canada's Frank Dancevic fainted during his match and Chinese player Peng Shuai cramped up and vomited.
And Daniel Gimeno-Traver had to rescue a ball boy who collapsed during his match with Milos Raonic. High temperatures in excess of 40 degrees were forecast to continue this week.
"It's definitely something that you maybe have to look at a little bit," Murray said, when asked whether or not he thought the conditions were safe enough to play in.
"As much as it's easy to say the conditions are safe - a few people said there's doctors and stuff saying it's fine - it only takes one bad thing to happen.
"And it looks terrible for the whole sport when people are collapsing, ball kids are collapsing, people in the stands are collapsing. That's obviously not great.