MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic is 2-0 on the comeback trail with his compression sleeve and revamped serve.
He has won in humane conditions. He has won in inhumane conditions, and they don’t get much more extreme in tennis than on Thursday afternoon at the Australian Open, which is back to being the griddle of Grand Slam tournaments.
The temperature of 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) at Melbourne Park combined with low humidity was not quite enough to trigger the tournament’s extreme heat policy, which would have generated delays on the outside courts and closed roofs on the main courts.