“Do you want a player to die?” Tennis is hot after players wilt under extreme conditions

Jannik Sinner had tried everything, but after two and a half hours of baking in the stifling sauna of Shanghai’s stadium field, he was done. Even around midnight the humidity was still so oppressive that Sinner had spent the last twenty minutes of his third round match against Tallon Greek Spoor cramping, panting and in considerable pain. Eventually he couldn’t even walk properly anymore. Midway through the final set, the 24-year-old slowly hobbled to his chair, using his racket as a crutch, and ended the match.

These scenes were representative of the Shanghai Masters, as so many players have withered under brutal conditions over the past week. Terence Atmane and Hamad Medjedovic both retired after problems with the heat. Francisco Comesaña seemed to be on the verge of collapse and he had to be helped by his opponent Lorenzo Musetti halfway through the match. Despite the advantage of competing at night, Novak Djokovic vomited repeatedly in two consecutive matches and there were moments in his fourth-round victory over Jaume Munar when he too looked as if he had reached his limit.

Five hundred kilometers away, in Wuhan, the weather was also a challenge for the top female players. Emma Raducanu and Jelena Ostapenko both retired in warm, humid conditions. Alongside a video on social media of her wringing sweat from her socks, Bianca Andreescu wrote: “The weather in Wuhan basically said: ‘Play tennis in a sauna.'”

As startling as these scenes have been, this is hardly uncharted territory. Every year, players are pushed to their limits in a sport that chases the sun. However, tennis has failed to ensure player safety by addressing the danger of competing in such extreme conditions.

The glaring problem was illustrated by Holger Rune during his medical timeout this weekend. Speaking to Gerry Armstrong, one of the ATP supervisors in Shanghai, Rune asked: “Why doesn’t the ATP have a heat rule? Do you want a player to die on the court?”

While the grand slam tournaments and the WTA have an extreme heat policy, this still does not apply to the ATP. The ATP entrusts the regulators, in coordination with its medical staff, to manage the players in suffocating conditions. As such, Armstrong’s response to Rune was even more damning: “I don’t know, it’s a good question,” he said.

In a statement, an ATP representative said: “Under ATP rules, decisions on suspending play due to weather conditions – including extreme heat – rest with the ATP on-site supervisor, in coordination with the on-site medical teams and local authorities. At the same time, the ATP medical service team implements various measures in the event of extreme heat, to ensure the health of to help protect players during competition.

“This is still being actively assessed and additional measures, including the implementation of an official heat policy, are currently being evaluated in consultation with players, tournaments and medical experts. Player safety remains a top priority for the ATP.”

In a well-governed sport, a standardized extreme heat policy for all tournaments would have been in place for a long time. However, tennis is uncomfortably divided between the four grand slam tournaments, the ATP, WTA and ITF, organizations that are often too focused on protecting their own interests.

Just a month ago, players at the Cincinnati Open similarly battled hot and humid conditions for two weeks before the tournament ended when Sinner withdrew due to illness in the final against Carlos Alcaraz. Global warming will only lead to further problems, so governing bodies should already investigate how to adjust the calendar to avoid these intolerable conditions.

This is a challenging subject, as physical preparation and endurance are an important part of excelling at the top of the sport. Elite players pride themselves on being able to tackle the elements and still find a way through them. However, everyone has a limit.

“I think there should be some kind of rule,” Rune said Tuesday. “We can handle a certain amount of heat because we are fit, we are strong, we are also mentally strong, but there is always a limit. I think it is also important to take care of your health. We have to survive.”

There are smaller changes to take into account. Back in Cincinnati, as the heat devastated the tournament, Iga Swiatek said she would like to see more flexibility with the time limit between points on warmer days: “This kind of heat is something that we just need to survive, and it’s not like we can’t,” she said. “Maybe it would be nice to give us five extra seconds to use the towel or to have more time to breathe because it’s a little harder.”

This latest issue on dealing with extreme heat comes at the end of another grueling, long season, and player welfare has been a major talking point.

The number of retirements, withdrawals and injuries this year was shocking. With seven retirements or walkovers at the Shanghai Masters in the past week, there have now been 41 retirements and walkovers at the ATP Masters 1000 events this year, including nine in Madrid and eight in Cincinnati.

Last Monday at the China Open in Beijing, a combined WTA 1000 and ATP 500 event, five of the twelve matches ended in retirement. This doesn’t even take into account the injuries, physical pain and mental strain that many players on both tours continue to go through. It is becoming increasingly difficult to argue that the tours have done enough to prioritize player welfare.

The length of the tennis season has been a major talking point for decades with minimal changes, but recent initiatives from the ATP and WTA tours only seem to accentuate these issues.

Over the past two years the WTA has introduced stricter scheduling controls for its top players and there is a growing consensus that the ATP-driven push to expand so many of the ATP and WTA 1000 events into lengthy two-week affairs has come at the expense of the players themselves. With even more “on” days at tournaments and more time away from home, their growing physical and mental issues are evident.

In the final weeks of a new campaign, as injuries pile up and few participants seem satisfied, it feels like the tour is reaching a breaking point. However, it is still unclear whether governing bodies are willing to acknowledge these problems and take meaningful steps to resolve them.