• Fortunately, the meteorological concern on Day One: rain, and not air quality. After so much discussion, quite rightly, about this event and its ability to handle unsafe conditions wrought by the bushfires ravaging so much of the country, conditions today were merely damp, not dangerous. Some 32 first round matches were cancelled or moved on Monday due to rain delays. Mother Nature is a fickle character. Who knows what she has in mind for the next 13 days—which way she’ll blow her winds, whether the atmosphere will have the equivalent of a fever? But for all the talk about delaying—or even cancelling— this event, air quality was, happily, a non-issue today.
Five Thoughts From Day One of the 2020 Australian Open
