Rain, rain, go away! Not a good start to the first Grand Slam tournament of the 2025 season. Heavy rain and thunderstorms in Melbourne disrupted the play on the first day of the 2025 Australian Open. Matches started as scheduled at 11:00 local time on Sunday, but players on the outer courts were forced off about an hour later. Persistent rain forced the cancellation of a quarter of the scheduled singles matches. The players had to scramble for indoor practice courts. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz were seen practicing side by side by sharing the court. Amid all these, an American tennis star vented out her frustration surrounding rain delays.

Nicole Melichar-Martinez is all set to start her doubles campaign at the 2025 Australian Open on January 14 alongside Hungary’s Timea Babos. However, before that, she looked a bit annoyed with how things went so far on Day 1 at the Australian Open. She was not happy with the tournament organizers! What did she say, though? Well, in a recent tweet, she wrote, “It’s 5:30 pm… match in progress to finish, and night session not starting until 7 pm. And they cannot put matches on covered courts to finish so players so have to wait ALL day? 😑 @AustralianOpen.”

The wet weather meant only the matches scheduled on Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena, and John Cain Arena- all of which have a roof– could be played. Last year, we saw the Australian Open schedule going under some real scrutiny following a few late-night finishes. Last year we saw Daniil Medvedev’s match against Emil Ruusuvuori ending at 3:40 am. A year before that, Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis’ match went on until 4:05 am. In 2008, Lleyton Hewitt’s match against Marcos Baghdatis went later than all of them! Both of them were seen playing until 4:34.

While speaking on late-night finishes, players like Novak Djokovic said, “It’s definitely not fun for us.” Even Taylor Fritz said, “It just screws up your whole clock. I pray for those guys.” It’ll be interesting to see if these type of rain delays yet again forces some late-night finishes or not in the upcoming days. What is the weather forecast for the next few days, though?

Weather forecast at the 2025 Australian Open for the upcoming days

Organizers canceled five singles matches as persistent rain washed out a large chunk of play on the opening day of the Australian Open on Sunday. However, amid all these harsh weather conditions in Melbourne, Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng, teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva, Croatian superstar Donna Vekic and Frenchman Arthur Fils managed to reach the second round. Zheng made the most of the indoor conditions under a roof at the Rod Laver Arena to beat Anca Todoni 7-6(3),6-1. 

The 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva was one of the first players to reach the second round on Sunday. She beat the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova by 6-3,6-3 and shortly after the match, she was heard saying, “I’m very happy today that I played on a stadium with a roof.” Are we heading for a similar rain delay in the upcoming days of the 2025 Australian Open as well?

According to weather reports, even on Monday and Tuesday, there is a prediction of just cloudy skies. However, after those two days, rains could again possibly disrupt the play in the second round which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday and Thursday. The third round could start under cloudy skies on Friday, but there is good news for the fans after that! The next three days i.e. January 18-20 are predicted to be bright and sunny. So, there is a high possibility of getting no further delays during that phase.

The last six days of the Australian Open (January 21 to January 26) are expected to be played under cloudy weather. However, even if it rains, there shouldn’t be many problems with rescheduling them on the three main courts equipped with rooftops. Talking about temperatures, well it’s expected to reach as high as 30 degrees Celsius during a bright sunny day and it can also drop to about 13 degrees Celsius during cloudy days. Who do you think will weather the storm and come out victorious at the 2025 Australian Open on both men’s and women’s sides? Share your thoughts in the comments below.