Australian Open:”With the hairdryer in the face”: Hot Slam warms up the minds of the professionals

Temperatures of up to 67 degrees Celsius on the court: On the fourth day of the Australian Open, critical conditions have heated up the spirits of the pros. For Juan Martin del Potro, the situation was even unacceptable.

From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne

In the heat of the battle Angelique Kerber felt like a hairdresser’s.”It felt like a hairdryer blowing in your face,”said the Kieler after her 6-4,6-1 win in the second round of the Australian Open against Donna Vekic (Croatia). Temperatures of up to 67 degrees Celsius on the water-blue plexicushion flooring made the performances of the pros become an ordeal on Thursday. And the bad news: On Friday, the fifth day of the tournament, it should even get a few degrees warmer.

“These were the toughest conditions I’ve ever played in,” said Melbourne record winner Novak Djokovic about the Sahara states that added Kerber:”My shoes felt hotter than ever,” Djokovic’s opponent Gael Monfils even complained of dizziness during his defeat against the Serbs and had a doctor come along. I think I had a little heat stroke for 40 minutes,”the Frenchman explained. Both the “Djoker” and Monfils could still see the strains after the match when they were sitting in the press room.

Many of her colleagues already took an ice bath in the stadium catacombs at this time. The cool-down vests were booming on the courts. The temperatures were simply too high to play tennis,”complained the 2009 Argentinian Open winner in 2009, adding with gallows humor:” I survived.

There were no interruptions, however. Not yet. On Friday, however, the Extreme Heat Policy (EHP) could be applied. Matches are interrupted when the so-called WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature) factor, which can be calculated from temperature, UV radiation, wind and humidity, exceeds the magical limit of 32.5 degrees Celsius.

Kerber, Melbourne champion of 2016 and rather heat-resistant, has once betrayed her secret recipe for Aussie heat:”You have to make friends with the weather. Mental and physical preparation is the key:”Temperatures such as these are an extreme strain at the moment,”said DTB doctor Didi Wolter in an interview with tennisnet. According to the Berlin physician, it is important that the players drink two to three liters of water during the matches,”only in this way can the oxygen content in the blood be sufficiently maintained and the concentration maintained for the duration of the matches”, explained Wolter.

For this reason, the physios in the locker room are already telling the pros how to behave. Many people don’t think about salt loss, which can lead to cramps,”said Tim Woods, a long-time tournament doc from the tournament.

Scenarios such as 2014 should definitely be avoided. On the second day of the tournament, a total of nine pros gave up on account of the consequences of the heat (up to 43.9 degrees Celsius) on that day. A year later, a visitor sued the city of Melbourne for failing to close the roof of the Hisense Arena despite the extreme temperatures – and falling down the stairs in search of shadows.