Ashleigh Barty will donate winnings to bushfire victims

Novak Djokovic said Australian Open organisers should consider delaying the first Grand Slam of the year if haze from bushfires raging around the country threatens players' health

Ashleigh Barty will donate winnings to bushfire victims

Ashleigh Barty

Brisbane: World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty will donate all her winnings from this week's Brisbane International to the Red Cross to help the victims of Australia's bushfire crisis. Barty revealed on Sunday that she had already donated Aus$30,000 to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), after seeing the effects of the fires back in November.

But she has now decided to do more and will give her Brisbane winnings—potentially US$250,000—to the Red Cross. "I think for me this started two or three months ago. We have to remember, this has been going on for a long time across our whole country," Barty said. "And the first I saw of it was actually flying home from the Fed Cup final from Perth back to the east coast of Australia and we could see some of the smoke and some of the fires from the plane, so that really hit home," she added. "Obviously the worst of it is still out there at the moment."

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic said Australian Open organisers should consider delaying the first Grand Slam of the year if haze from bushfires raging around the country threatens players' health. The opening major of 2020 is due to start at Melbourne Park on January 20 and the city was blanketed by smoke from blazes burning to the east on Saturday, compromising air quality.

Djokovic, president of the ATP players council, said on Sunday that any delay would be a last resort, but it needed to be discussed.

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