Australians bit back today after cheeky British media suggested the blazing heatwave beating down on the Australian Open showed the country was no place to hold sports events.
Australians bit back today after cheeky British media suggested the blazing heatwave beating down on the Australian Open showed the country was no place to hold sports events.
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"Too hot for the Poms," read a headline in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper, as players and fans continued to swelter in scorching 44 C heat.
The London Times had earlier poked fun at the conditions, which prompted men's champion Novak Djokovic to pull out and caused a row over the use of the stadium roof.
"Are these any conditions in which to play tennis?" a column said.
"Sooner or later you have to face up to the only sensible conclusion: Australia is no place to host big international sporting tournaments; except maybe the world kangaroo long-jump."
Former Aussie Rules player Sam Kekovich said England was good at producing "bottom-feeding billionaire bankers" but not sportspeople.
"The Poms don't even know what the great yellow orb looks like," Kekovich told the Herald Sun.
"England has been engulfed in darkness for the bulk of its sporting life."
Singer Mike Brady was quoted as saying: "I was born in England and didn't know sport existed until I was 11."
Yesterday, organisers closed the roof on Rod Laver Arena and switched on the air-conditioning midway through a match, sparking a row over why they had not done it sooner.
Serena Williams, who was playing Svetlana Kuznetsova at the time, said she felt like she was having an "out-of-body experience."
"It was really an out-of-body experience. I felt I was watching someone play in a blue dress, and it wasn't me, because it was so hot out there," she said.
Spanish top seed Rafael Nadal, who lives in sultry Majorca, said he had never experienced heat like it.
"Believe me, it's not like here. I've never felt the same as today when I was warming up outside," he said.
Fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco joked he felt like jumping in the fridge when he heard the heatwave was set to continue.
"If you tell me now, I will go to the fridge. I will put myself in for few days," he said.
Belarus's Victoria Azarenka staggered around the court before pulling out ill, Marcos Baghdatis said he wanted to "puke" and Jelena Jankovic said she needed air-conditioned shoes.
Organisers defended their use of the stadium roof, saying temperatures needed to reach a specific level before it could be closed.
Temperatures are forecast to remain above 40 C tomorrow and retreat to the mid-30s over the weekend.
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