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Weather station at Australian Open

— Photo: AP

LUCKY BREAK: Jelena Jankovic of Serbia receives treatment from a trainer during her first round match.

MELBOURNE: Australian Open organisers have employed an official weather forecaster at the Melbourne Park complex for the first time to help manage this year’s new heat policy.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology will provide a forecaster and set up a state-of-the-art automatic weather station at the Open to continuously monitor temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure.

Any decision regarding potential stoppages in play due to heat or other weather factors will be solely at the discretion of the tournament referee.

Third-seeded Jelena Jankovic considers herself lucky to have made it to her first-round match against Tamira Paszek, let alone win it.

After leaving her city hotel on Monday for her morning match, Jankovic said she noticed her driver was heading in the opposite direction to Melbourne Park and instead was on his way to the Albert Park practice courts.

“The driver almost brought me to Albert Park,” the Serbian player said. “He was thinking I was going to practise. And I was like, ’excuse me, are you taking a new shortcut? Where are you going?” So it was actually good that I said something, otherwise I would end up in Albert Park. Who knows what would happen.”

Serena Williams says she likes “baring her soul” with blogs on her website, and is surprised by the interest in what she has to say.

“One thing with my website — I’m really interactive,” Williams said on Monday after her 6-3, 6-3, first-round win over Jamila Gajdosova at the Australian Open.

“I’ve written a lot of things about me. I have a part that’s a relationship blog where ... I go through some of my friends’ problems, I talk about it, what to do in a relationship, what not to do. I always try to bare my soul so people can kind of see what kind of person I am and get a better feeling for Serena Williams.” — AP

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