Australian Open: Nadal criticizes after hot days:”Sometimes not safe enough”

Rafael Nadal also pointed out the dangers of heat for the professionals after the two Sahara days with temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius. Previously Novak Djokovic, Gael Monfils, Juan Martin del Potro and Alize Cornet had already voiced criticism.

From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne

Rafael Nadal, despite his stroll, looked forward to the round of sixteen in Melbourne worried about you. Happy Slam, my ass. It was once again about the heat of the last two days – and the question of whether it was justifiable to send the pros to the courts despite temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius.”Sometimes it’s really not safe enough. It was very, very difficult conditions on Thursday and Friday. Sometimes it’s just too much and it can be a little dangerous for your health,”said the top seeded Spanish superstar after his 6-1,6-3,6-1 defeat of Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, saying:”It’s not nice to see professionals suffer as much on the pitch as they have over the past few days. The only positive thing was that it wasn’t humid. Everything else is very negative.”

Nadal was lucky to have been scheduled for the night session. At that time, temperatures in the Margaret Court Arena were only 27 degrees Celsius, after a drop in temperature of about 15 degrees Celsius in the afternoon within a few hours.

Alize Cornet caught the heat wave at full blast. Two days after their win over Julia Görges (Bad Oldesloe) in their third round defeat against Elise Mertens from Belgium (5:7,4:6), they were over 40 degrees in the shade,”I had a typical heat stroke. I felt very bad, my head turned and it froze all over my body,”said Cornet, a French woman:”Thanks to the help of the physiotherapist, I was able to finish the match” The 27-year-old asked for a change of rules:”Nobody wants to experience what we had to go through on the court for the last two days,”she emphasized:”I understand that the organizers want to start the games. That’s the business. But we’re not robots.”

The players in Melbourne initially survived the heat wave, but on Friday afternoon it cooled down noticeably. Mediterranean temperatures are also predicted for the coming days. On Thursday, Australian Open record champion Novak Djokovic had already complained about the torture down under:”These were some of the toughest conditions I’ve ever played under,” Djokovic’s opponent Gael Monfils even complained about dizziness during his defeat against the Serbian and had a doctor come in.”I had trouble getting air. I think I had a little heat stroke for 40 minutes,”the Frenchman explained.

Angelique Kerber felt as if she was blowing someone’s face with the hairdryer “My shoes and feet were as hot as ever”, the Kieler complained. The temperatures were simply too high to play tennis,”complained the 2009 Argentinian US Open winner, adding with gallows humor:” I survived.

However, there were no interruptions on Friday either. Matches can be interrupted if the so-called WBGT factor (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature), which can be calculated from temperature, UV radiation, wind and humidity, exceeds the magical limit of 32.5 degrees Celsius. That was not the case.