On January 16 at the Australian Open last year, Maria Sharapova was hot.

Hotter than usual, that is.

It was a stinking hot day on centre court at Melbourne Park and the Russian minx, used to Eskimo-like temperatures in her native country, was feeling the 40-degree heat.

After getting treatment for heat exhaustion, Sharapova narrowly avoided becoming the first women’s No.1 seed to lose in the opening round since 1979 by outlasting France’s Camille Pin 9-7 in the third set.

She later launched an angry tirade at tournament officials, describing the conditions as “inhuman”.

As a result, the Australian Open’s heat policy has been changed this year.

The changes ensure that matches can be now stopped once a set is completed, at the discretion of the tournament referee, and, as in previous years, the roof on Rod Laver Arena and Vodafone Arena are allowed to be closed.

Play won’t resume until the tournament referee deems conditions are comfortable enough to do so.

Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt came out pre-tournament and criticised the policy, and I totally agree with them.

Matches should be suspended once the on-court temperature reaches a certain level, but not for a long period of time.

I believe a better policy would be to give players a 15-minute break after the completion of each set in extreme heat to recover, take in a lot of water, perhaps retire to the locker rooms to cool down.

After that, play would again resume, regardless of the temperature.

To suspend play completely would disadvantage those players who have put in the hard yards over the off-season in a bid to condition themselves for grand slam tennis.

This from Roddick after beating Marat Safin at the Kooyong Classic: “I have never been a big fan of closing the roof.

“That is what you have two months to train for, to get yourself in shape.

“I didn’t come to Australia to play in air-conditioning. I think it takes away from it a little bit and the court plays differently also.”

And this from Hewitt after the first day of the Adelaide International: “It’s not comfortable for anyone to play sport on days like this, but that’s what it’s about though, gruelling out matches.

“There shouldn’t be a heat rule regardless, we’re athletes and if you don’t put in the hard yards then don’t play.”

As is stands, the tournament’s heat policy disadvantages the fittest girls and boys on the tour, like Hewitt, Roddick and Justine Henin.

It also gives the top seeds who play most of their matches on Rod Laver or Vodafone a huge leg-up. They get to play under the roof in air-conditioned comfort, while others sweat it out on outside courts.

What’s that old saying? If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen?

Maybe there should be one for tennis stars that says if you don’t like the heat, get out of Melbourne.