The uncontrolled bush fires that have been destroying massive parts of Australia have gained prominent attention from international news outlets over the past several months.

For IU senior tennis player Annabelle Andrinopoulos, these reports are more than just stories about a country thousands of miles away. That country is her home.

“A disaster like that really has a huge impact on a country, economically and the spirit,” Andrinopoulos said. “It was just very sad to see so many animals being wiped out, so many people lose their homes, especially with something that’s really hard to control. It’s one of those things that you just kind of have to wait it out until it gets better.”

Millions of acres of land have been burned and hundreds of millions of animals have been killed by the fires, which largely started in September. Even places not physically burning are being affected by smoke, with the air quality in Sydney reportedly reaching 11 times the ‘hazardous’ level in December.

Back in Melbourne, where Andrinopoulos lived before coming to college in the United States, the bush fires were still causing serious issues as officials prepared for the Australian Open. The tournament is one of the biggest yearly events in the tennis world, bringing plenty of tourism as the biggest celebrities in the sport spend weeks in Melbourne. Leading up to the 2020 tournament, the players witnessed firsthand some of the issues facing the country.

“I know they’re having problems at the Australian Open with matches being cancelled due to athletes not being able to breathe,” Andrinopoulos noted.

Slovenian Dalila Jakupovic had to retire from the singles qualifying draw after struggling to breathe during her match, and other players, such as Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, took medical timeouts to deal with smoke inhalation.

Andrinopoulos herself left Australia roughly 5 years ago to play college tennis in Colorado. Now competing for Indiana University, she is forced to watch her country struggle from afar.

“It’s really sad because it really does affect everybody,” Andrinopoulos said. “Even though the closest fires to where I leave are maybe three hours away, we still get impacted by all the smoke, and the air quality was really poor.”

Luckily, with the amount of international coverage the fires were getting came a large relief effort as well. The tennis community, witnessing the effects first-hand, jumped in to help. Just before the tournament started, some of tennis’ biggest stars took part in a charity event in Melbourne, raising almost $5 million Australian dollars in one night.

“I think a lot of people did a lot of good things,” Andrinopoulos said. “People managed to raise a lot of money for it. I think a lot was done for it which was really good to see the world coming together.”

A little relief came in the form of rain as well, both during and after the tennis tournament, but that has raised its own issues since. The rain is pouring on damaged landscapes, leading to flooding in some already struggling areas, but overall, the rain can be viewed as a good omen as firefighters still battle flames across the country.

With the heart of tennis season over in Australia, fans will hope for better conditions during next year’s tournament. Although Andrinopoulos hasn’t been able to attend the Australian Open for the past several years, she aims to be back soon.

“I grew up playing in that facility, training there twice a day, so I was all around the hustle and bustle of tennis,” Andrinopoulos said. “The summer is really fun with all the events going on. Aussies really love tennis.”