MELBOURNE, Australia -- Complaints from players about a lack of rest between seasons and the extreme heat of the Australian summer have prompted organizers of the season-opening tennis Grand Slam to consider rescheduling.

Tennis Australia President Geoff Pollard said a change had been discussed, but several possible impediments would have to be overcome before switching the tournament dates.

International Tennis Federation president Francesco Ricci-Bitti told a German newspaper that the sport's governing body was negotiating with the ATP -- the men's tour organizers -- with a view to push the Australian Open back from the last two weeks of January and into March.

"It's logical that we're too early and the end of the season is too late,'' Pollard told a Melbourne radio station Thursday. "This has been on the agenda for a while, but there is no clear and obvious solution.''

At a news conference later in Canberra, Pollard said Tennis Australia would discuss changing the tournament dates with the ITF, the ATP or the WTA, which runs the women's tour, but wouldn't be bullied into anything.

"The Australian Open dates are a Tennis Australia decision, it's not an ITF decision,'' he said.

Pollard supported a longer offseason for players, but said that could be achieved by finishing the season earlier and maintaining the January slot for the Australian Open.

"If we can help create a better offseason for the players then we'll look at it, but we'd like to look at all the ways you can make the tennis circuit better, not just one in isolation,'' he said. ''

Former women's No. 1 Martina Navratilova, who won 18 singles Grand Slam titles, sparked the latest push for a calendar overhaul earlier in the week, writing in her newspaper column that it shouldn't take serious injuries to players to force a change of dates.

Marat Safin, a former U.S. Open champion and finalist at the Australian Open last year, complained that there wasn't enough time between seasons.

He said pushing the first major of the season back at least a month was the "best idea.''

A host of other top professionals, including three-time Australian champion Andre Agassi, backed calls by Safin for a longer offseason. Agassi said giving players more time to recover from one season and then prepare for the next would provide a better level off tennis all around.

The players also want more time between the French Open and Wimbledon to prepare for the grass season at the end of their clay-court campaigns.

Pollard agreed it wasn't just the Australian Open that would need to be rescheduled in an overhaul.

"Everyone knows that the French and Wimbledon are too close together and there are a lot of events in the autumn after the end of the U.S. Open,'' he said.

Australian organizers were concerned that warmup tournaments in Australia would not be as well supported by players if the first major of the year was pushed back. Crowd numbers also could also be affected by shifting the Australian Open from its traditional time in the summer holidays.