Players get mid-match breaks as heat smashes down on Wimbledon

A few years back, the gardeners at Wimbledon had to revamp the flower arrangements at the venue to cope with the drought and restrictions on the use of water that had descended on the country. The traditional purple and green hydrangea displays were replaced with less thirsty flora such as olive trees and lavender. Salvia, lily of the Nile, bellflower and silverbush also filled in for the hydrangeas, petunias and surfinias.

Serena Williams says the rising temperatures at Wimbledon will be of little concern as she trains in the hotter climate of Florida. Reuters/Toby Melville

As temperatures rise to the mid-30s, players at this year's tournament will be able to enjoy extended refreshments.

Emergency rules for hot weather were confirmed on Tuesday permitting a 10-minute break between the second and third sets of women's matches once the thermometer goes over 30.1 degrees Celsius (86.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

The move has been accepted by administrators of the event at the All England Lawn Tennis Club following lobbying from the executives at the WTA, the body which runs the women's professional tour.

The leeway will not apply to men who - because it is a grand slam event - must play the best of five sets. They don't even have the comfort of a tiebreak in the decisive set.

Tuesday's heat is expected to flirt around the 30C mark but is due to hit 35C on Wednesday.

The highest temperature recorded at Wimbledon was 34C in 1976.

Despite the searing skies, All England Club chiefs said that the Centre Court roof would not be closed to preserve the tournament's integrity as an outdoor event.

Maria Sharapova, the 2004 champion, who moved into the second round on the opening day on Monday at the expense of the British wildcard Johanna Konta, played down a potential row over sexism.

The fourth seed said the heat rule index should be extended to the men.

"I think if it's something that they're concerned about it, they can reevaluate," said the Russian 28-year-old. "If it does get quite hot for us, we're able to use it, then why not?"

Women's world number one Serena Williams, who like Sharapova is scheduled to play on Wednesday in the second round, said the heat would not concern her as she regularly trains in temperatures of over more than 40C at her Florida home.

"I don't think I've ever played in 34, 35 degrees here at Wimbledon, but I do in other countries. I just was training in Florida and it was like 42 degrees. This will be okay," said the American, who is in the hunt for her sixth title in south-west London and her fourth consecutive grand slam crown.

The quip goes that rain comes as soon as Wimbledon starts. Unsurprisingly for a country seemingly obsessed with the weather, there is a flood of data about the mercury in the thermometers.

The highest average maximum daily temperature - 30.8C - was recorded in 1976 while the lowest minimum recorded was 4.9C on 24 June 1999.

Only five tournaments haven't been visited by rain. The most recent was in 1993 when the American Pete Sampras collected the first of his seven titles and Germany's Steffi Graf claimed the fifth of her seven crowns.

Meterologically speaking at least, It appears that form will ultimately be respected. The heavens are expected to open over the All England club's lawns on Thursday with temperatures due to drop to the more clement mid-20s.