The first day of Australian Open qualifying has been significantly delayed by heavy rain, throwing the draws into chaos.

Early on Monday, tournament organisers said there would be no play on the outdoor courts at Melbourne Park before 12pm AEDT because of rain.

This time was continually pushed back as the rain continued to fall before a few first-round matches could finally commence at 4pm.

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Because of the setbacks, the fifth match scheduled on each court on Monday has been cancelled. All fourth matches on courts KIA Arena, 1573, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15 and 17 have also been cancelled for the day.

The delays will impact the 25 Australians vying for a place in the main draw, including the nation’s new top-ranked female player Kimberly Birrell, son of a gun Cruz Hewitt and Bernard Tomicas he targets a return to the Australian Open.

Tomic, whose ranking plummeted to No.835 in the world in August 2022, has rebuilt his ranking to No.214 to participate in the qualifying phase of the slam.

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The 27-year-old was scheduled to play 21st seed Jozef Kovalik on Tuesday morning, however the match will likely be moved to Wednesday now.

It’s a similar situation for Birrell and Hewitt with the abandoned matches to be rescheduled — dispersed through the existing seven-day schedule.

No qualifying matches were permitted to be played on the indoor courts at the precinct.

This allowed main draw players Alex de Minaur, Emma Raducanu, Matteo Berrettini and Stefanos Tsitsipas to proceed with their training sessions on the courts as planned.

It is understood that the indoor courts could be made available later in the week to host rescheduled qualifying matches if required.

The rain is expected to clear by Monday evening.

Australian Open qualifying runs through to Saturday, January 11 before the main draw kicks off on Sunday, January 12.