4 months ago
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Play was halted during an Australian Open first-round lucifer connected Sunday (January 18, 2026) erstwhile a shot miss fainted arsenic temperatures soared, with players Zeynep Sonmez and Ekaterina Alexandrova rushing to assistance her.
The incidental happened arsenic Russian 11th effect Alexandrova was serving during the 2nd acceptable with the miss falling onto her backmost portion lasting astatine the basal of the umpire’s chair.
Emerging Turkish prima Sonmez sprinted implicit to assistance portion Alexandrova fetched crystal bags from a courtside fridge, earlier she received aesculapian attention.
Play was suspended for respective minutes with temperatures reaching 28 Celsius.
When they resumed, qualifier Sonmez stunned Alexandrova 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 for the biggest triumph of her career.
The 23-year-old made headlines astatine Wimbledon past year, becoming the archetypal subordinate from Turkey to scope the 3rd circular astatine a Grand Slam successful the Open era.
She volition play either American wildcard Elizabeth Mandlik oregon Hungary’s Anna Bondar next.
Temperatures person been known to soar past 40C during the Australian Open. They are forecast to scope a precocious of astatine slightest 36C this week.
