VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Australian Open 2020 tennis tournament was forced to stop in the qualifying round due to the thick smoke covering Melbourne on Tuesday (14.01.20) afternoon. The second day's qualifying match had to be stopped for an hour because many athletes suffered from breathing problems. As quoted from ABC news, Craig Tiley, Director of the Australian Open Tournament, explained on Tuesday the reason for stopping the match.

"The health of and well-being of the players, the fans and our staff is a lot more important. The long term forecast even the short term forecast is good and we will set the date and time," said Craig Tiley.

A Canadian athlete, Euginie Bouchard, said there should be certain rules regarding the air quality. The fire season of 2019-2020 is a season with a marked intensity compared to the previous season because it has burned around 10.7 million hectares of forest, destroyed more than 5,900 buildings and killed dozens of lives. (ABC News / VOI / NUKE/AHM)