The governing body of men’s tennis says they are open to making changes to its heat policy amid a series of high-profile incidents at the Shanghai Masters, where some players have struggled in the conditions.
During the first week of China’s most prestigious men’s tennis event, participants had to play in temperatures of around 30 degrees with humidity levels of around 80%. On Sunday, top seed Jannik Sinner was forced to retire from the third set of his match due to severe cramping. On the same day, Denmark’s Holger Rune took a medical time out during his match for heat-related reasons.
Additionally, other players have also retired from the tournament due to illness or injury. These include Casper Ruud, Tomas Machac, David Goffin, Terrence Atmane, Hamad Medjedovic and Wu Yibing. Novak Djokovic, who is still in the tournament, was sick during one of his matches.
“It’s the same for every player out on the court, but it’s brutal,” Djokovic said after beating Yannick Hanfmann.
“It’s brutal when you have over 80 per cent humidity day after day, particularly for the guys when they’re playing during the day with heat, with sun, it’s even more brutal.
“For me, biologically it’s a bit more challenging to deal with it. But I had to really weather the storm.”
Unlike the WTA Tour and Grand Slams, the ATP doesn’t have a specific policy where play has to be stopped once the weather reaches a certain temperature. Instead, it is up to the discretion of tournament organisers, as well as local authorities.
However, the ATP has confirmed there could be changes made to how the Tour deal with hot weather with an ongoing review currently being conducted alongside other stakeholders.
“In parallel, the ATP Medical Services team implements several measures in cases of extreme heat, to help protect player health during competition,” the ATP told Reuters.
“This remains under active review and additional measures including the implementation of an official heat policy are currently being evaluated in consultation with players, tournaments, and medical experts,” it added.
“Player safety remains a top priority for the ATP.”
It is unclear how long the review will take or when any possible changes, if any, will be implemented.
Meanwhile, in Shanghai, the hot weather is set to continue with the temperature potentially rising to as high as 34 degrees on the day of the final, according to the Met Office.
