US Open: “Like a nightmare”: New York heat turns professionals into survivors

The extreme heat in New York made it hard for all the professionals on Tuesday. Not only Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic was in survival mode.

It was in the middle of the second set, in the blazing heat of Arthur Ashe Stadium, when Novak Djokovic made an unusual request to the ball children. You should put a bucket near your seat,” says Djokovic, “in case I have to throw up soon.”

Djokovic looked like a stray man in the desert at that moment, his face looking red and emaciated, his gaze empty, bulling forward. “I was only in survival mode,” said the Wimbledon champion, the 13-time Grand Slam winner, afterwards. Somehow Djokovic managed to beat Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics in four sets in Grand Slam hell, and in between he took pills to stabilise his circulation: “It was shocking. I was just praying that I could feel better again.”

At the US Open, of all places, the heat summer is also experiencing a brutal climax in the United States. At the last Grand Slam tournament of the season, the elimination matches have become extreme sports, even experienced tour staff like Angelique Kerber could not remember “ever having experienced something like this”.

When the Wimbledon winner was asked on Tuesday that conditions could get even worse, she shook her head slightly irritated: “Worse geht´s no longer at all. In the match between Australian Open winner Caroline Wozniacki and Australian Sam Stosur, dramatic scenes even took place on Grandstand Square: Wozniacki’s mother Anna had to be completely exhausted, slightly disoriented, led off the field while her daughter fought for victory downstairs. “She was on the brink of collapse,” explained Wozniacki’s trainer father Piotr.

Temperatures of 38 degrees in the shade, which skyrocketed up to 50 degrees on the sun-drenched courts and more, plus extreme humidity: The whole Billie Jean King tennis center resembled an open-air sauna – directly after an infusion. “On the court, I felt like I was going to die,” Argentinian Leo Mayer, one of five pros to give up on Tuesday alone, said on the record.

The whole thing is a “single nightmare”, explained Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, who also needed medical treatment during her three-set defeat. All players had ice bags placed around their necks during each break. Thousands of fans fled to every possible shady spot, many did not take their places in the midday and afternoon sun at first.

The situation was so precarious that the organizing US Tennis Association (USTA) felt called upon to issue an emergency order. For the first time in the history of the New York Grand Slam spectacle, the male professional players were allowed to take a “heat break” before the fourth set, for exactly ten minutes. For women, the rules have been in force for some time anyway, with a match stop for ten minutes before the third set in a certain weather situation – extreme warmth and extreme humidity.

The traces of the heat chaos were nevertheless unmistakable: “In the changing rooms, the players simply lay on the ground in rows. Totally exhausted in the end,” said Italian Stefano Travaglia, who also had to give up his game, “it wasn’t a day for competitive sports.

The two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova described her action against the Belgian Yanina Wickmayer as “murderous”: “We have all heard the predictions. But you can’t even imagine what it means to stand on the court on a day like this.”

To make matters worse, since the first day of this US Open, the so-called service watch for the pros has been ticking relentlessly. Within 25 seconds after the last point played, the serve must now take place, if you dawdle, you will feel penalties – a service will then be taken off your hand.

“It’s almost inhuman to push that limit in this heat,” said former world-class player Pam Shriver. But through its spokesman Chris Widmaier, the USTA let it be known that “nothing will change in this procedure. The movable roofs above the Centre Court and Armstrong Stadium should not be closed either, said Widmaier: “We want equal conditions for all participants.