The 'unholy' history of grand slam tennis as Melbourne heatwave sweeps Australian Open yet again

MELBOURNE: This article comes to you from the air conditioned comfort of the Norman Room where sensible journalists are munching ice creams and staying cool apart from the occasional grumble about a demanding editor.

Outside, however, players, officials and fans are baking in brutal conditions which are an annual part and parcel of scheduling a tennis tournament in Melbourne in January.

With weather chat all the rage, Wide World of Sports has taken a look back at some of the most infamous extreme heat moments in grand slam tennis history.

Watch the Australian Open live & free on the 9Network & 9Now. Stan Sport is the only place to watch every match, live & on demand with centre court in 4K.

Courier cools off at 1992, 1993 Australian Opens

Jim Courier became a tennis legend by beating Stefan Edberg in back-to-back Australian Open finals.

He also went back-to-back in celebrating by bravely diving in the Yarra River to cool off from the stifling heat.

Courier contracted a stomach bug in 1992 after swallowing some of the muddy brown, polluted water.

But it didn't put him off going back for more in 1993 after a tournament that recorded air temperatures off 44 degrees.

The actual on-court temperatures are much higher for players.

LIVE UPDATES: Kyrgios busted at club hours before brutal Aus Open loss

READ MORE: New Aussie hero reveals plan for surprise $480k payday

READ MORE: Sinner's admission after 'very difficult' clash with close mate

"They didn't have any rules back then," Courier told the Tennis Channel after watching Jannik Sinner struggle in the heat on Saturday.

"I woke up in the morning of the final in 1993. It was very similar conditions to what it was yesterday, it was going to be 102 degrees (Fahrenheit) and 150 on the court as far as the radiant temperature was going to be.

"I knew I had a physical advantage against Edberg who had been doing his training in London in the winter and I had been in Palm Springs.

"The tournament director at the time came to me and said, 'We're going to shut the roof' and I said, 'Good luck with that because you won't have two players on the court because those aren't the rules'."

"I won but I suffered too," he said.

"It was a four-set match, but not even three hours on the clock. Both of us were cramping while we were waiting for the trophy presentation because our bodies were just in shock. Now I applaud the tournament, given how much more physical the game is today than what it was back then. I think it (heat rule) is sensible."

'The hazy memory of playing in a giant kiln'

Andre Agassi articulated his love affair with Melbourne in his iconic autobiography Open.

"I like the surface, the venue – the heat," Agassi wrote.

"Having grown up in Vegas, I don't feel the heat the way the other players do, and the defining characteristic of the Australian Open is the unholy temperature.

"Just as cigar and pipe smoke lingers in the memory after playing Roland Garros, the hazy memory of playing in a giant kiln stays with you for weeks after you leave Melbourne."

'It's inhuman': Sharapova fumes in 2007 heatwave

The 2007 Australian Open was quite possibly the hottest ever, with temperatures of 50 degrees recorded in Melbourne during that ferocious fortnight.

Players weren't forced to hit balls with the mercury that high, but Maria Sharapova took aim at officials after slogging it out in the 40-plus heat.

Under the rules at that time, players already on court had to finish their matches, regardless of the rising temperature.

"It's inhuman to play three hours in that kind of heat," Sharapova said.

"I don't think our bodies were made to do that. When it's that hot your mind doesn't work properly."

Azarenka collapses in the Big Apple furnace

The more worldly reader will be aware that it doesn't only get hot in Melbourne.

It also gets hot in New York, as Victoria Azarenka discovered in 2010.

The Belarusian star was battling Gisela Dulko in 40 degree heat before collapsing in dramatic fashion.

Azarenka was put in a wheelchair and rushed to the hospital for tests.

She was diagnosed with concussion and revealed it wasn't just the Flushing Meadows heat to blame.

Azarenka said she had hit her head after a fall during her warmup.

"I felt worse as the match went on, having a headache and feeling dizzy. I also started having trouble seeing and felt weak before I fell."

Heat vs humidity: 'We get the bad rap in Australia'

The Australian Open almost always delivers the hottest temperatures of the four grand slams.

But Melbourne usually has a dry heat, while the humidity in New York can be horrendous.

"Everyone always talks about how hot Melbourne is... but the US Open's way worse than Melbourne," Australia's Samantha Stosur said in 2018.

"We get like one or two really hot days but I think they go on for longer and longer here in the States and there's more retirements and everything here than what there ever is in Melbourne. But for some reason we get the bad rap in Australia."

'If you can't deal with it, you throw in the towel'

The year 2014 brought more scorching weather Down Under with a four-day heatwave forcing play to be suspended on outside courts at Melbourne Park.

Swiss maestro Roger Federer remained cool as a cucumber, as is his wont.

"It's just a mental thing," Federer said after beating Australia's James Duckworth that year.

"If you've trained hard enough your entire life or the last few weeks and you believe you can do it and come through it, there's no reason you can't.

"If you can't deal with it, you throw in the towel."

It even got hot in England

As politicians continued to squabble about whether climate change was real, the Poms got in on the tennis heatwave fun.

Wimbledon in 2015 experienced their hottest ever conditions, peaking at 37 degrees in London - and 42 on Centre Court.

Pimm's was pumped, ball boys fainted, and Australia's Bernard Tomic battled.

"I was starting to get dizzy out there with the heat hitting me," Tomic said.

Wimbledon at the time had a curious heat rule, where only female players could ask for a 10 minute break after two sets on hot days.

"It's a bit interesting how the women have a different rule applied to them with the heat," Tomic said.

"Is it fair or not? Who am I to say? I don't know. It's a tough one."

The Australian Open, in 1998, was the first grand slam tournament to implement a formal extreme heat policy.

But the two hottest slams - the AO and US - will always suit players with extreme mental strength.

Think one Novak Djokovic, the 10-time winner in Melbourne who also revelled in steamy 38 degrees in New York in 2018.

He and first round opponent Marton Fucsovics were allowed a 10 minute break to recover in the locker room after the third set.

"We had the ice baths next to each other," Djokovic recalled.

"We were naked in the ice baths - it was a magnificent feeling I must say, to be naked with the guy you are still battling, when the match hasn't finished."