Play was delayed on the outside courts at the Australian Open on Thursday because of the dust and mud that came down during a rainstorm in Melbourne on Wednesday night. Play eventually began on courts three and 19 but rain then forced a suspension until nearly 04:00 GMT. Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova had a straightforward 6-3 6-3 win over Germany's Laura Siegemund and will play Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or American Taylor Townsend in the last 32. There were delays to Australian Open qualifying last week because of the "very poor" air quality from ongoing bushfires in the country. Apparently brought down from the dusty north, it was deposited over Melbourne and left clothes, cars and tennis courts covered in brown dirt.

Source: BBC January 23, 2020 02:26 UTC