MELBOURNE, Australia — The Australian Sauna Championships, disguised as a Grand Slam tennis tournament, finally ended Saturday. Advancement had depended on survival, on remaining upright, on shade and hydration and on the coolest accessory in sports, something called an ice vest.

Much of the first week of the Australian Open unfolded like an extreme sport.

For four days, starting Tuesday, the temperature climbed over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). It was the longest heat wave in the Melbourne area in more than 100 years, according to The Herald Sun. The newspaper said 243 people had gone to the hospital for heat exhaustion before the oppressive temperatures continued Friday.

At the Open in those four days, one player hallucinated and fainted. Another vomited. The soles of one player’s sneakers melted, as did the bottom of another player’s water bottle. Cramps were common, as were complaints from stars and journeymen alike. One complaint came from Ivan Dodig of Croatia, who said he had wondered whether he would die on the court.

The temperatures began to fall Friday night, and by Saturday it was a brisk 23 degree Celsius (73 Fahrenheit). But the takeaway was less about the temperatures and more about the gulf that widened over the week between the way officials portrayed the impact of the heat and what happened with the players. The tournament chose the nothing-to-see-here approach, and the longer that went on, the more absurd it seemed, amid the sea of red faces and collapsed bodies and heads balancing ice packs the way a model would a book.