A professional tennis player competing in an Australian Open qualifying match in Melbourne was forced to retire after she suffered a coughing fit from thick smoke caused by the catastrophic bushfires.
A spectator wears a mask as smoke haze shrouds they city during an Australian Open practice session at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 14, 2020. Smoke haze and poor air quality was caused by wildfires.
A spectator wears a mask as smoke haze shrouds they city during an Australian Open practice session at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 14, 2020. Smoke haze and poor air quality was caused by wildfires.Jakupovic has now joined a chorus of players speaking out against playing in the conditions.
"It's not healthy for us," Jakupovic told ESPN."I was surprised. I thought we would not be playing today, but we don't have much choice."Elina Svitolina, a Ukranian tennis player, tweeted,"Why do we need to wait for something bad to happen to do an action [sic]." Her tweet included a photo of the AQI at 200 Tuesday afternoon local time, well above the 0 to 50 standards for a good AQI and considered very unhealthy.
The AQI in Melbourne as of early Wednesday local time was listed as 167 and categorized as unhealthy, according to the World Air Quality Index.
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