Australian Open extreme heat policy

Margaret Court Arena in 2005 at the Australian Open before its renovation and change of court surface. Rod Laver Arena, the centre court, in the background.

The Extreme Heat Policy is a rule pertaining to the Australian Open (tennis). It was introduced in 1998 after consultation with a number of tennis players. Its current iteration was first implemented in 2019 and uses a scale of 1 to 5 that accounts for the physiological variances between adults, wheelchair and junior athletes while also taking into account the four climate factors – air temperature, radiant heat or the strength of the sun, humidity and wind speed – which affect a player’s ability to disperse heat from their body.