Play was suspended while the roof closed during the semifinal between Petra Kvitova and Danielle Collins. GETTY IMAGES
The extreme heat in Melbourne "took its toll" on the Australian Open on Thursday, but while beaten semifinalist Danielle Collins was "biting her tongue after her match," she did say that the decision to close the roof changed the "rhythm" of the match, according to Scott Spits of THE AGE. After "surging" to the semifinals and a showdown with world No. 8 Petra Kvitova, Collins was level with Kvitova at 4-4 in the first set when the decision was made to close the retractable roof over Rod Laver Arena. Kvitova went on to win 7-6, 6-0. The closed roof on center court resulted in "sharply different conditions" for the rest of the match as well as the second semifinal between Naomi Osaka and Karolina Pliskova. Collins: "I think that no matter what the situation is, if it's really hot, if it's -- you know, they need to start the match the way it's gonna finish." The move to close the roof was made under the Open’s "modified extreme heat policy," dictated for the first time this year by a "heat stress scale" that takes into account four climatic factors -- air temperature, radiant heat, humidity and wind speed (THE AGE, 1/24).
