Wuhan Open turns into a 'Sauna': Matches delayed as players battle brutal heat

The WTA 1000 event, the Wuhan Open, saw an interesting situation in which players were forced to delay the start of play. The mega-event is moving towards the business end where the remaining players are giving their all to secure the ultimate prize.

On Thursday, the play in the competition started two hours late because of extremely hot conditions. According to the English media outlet Daily Express, the players were due to take the court at 01 PM local time. Still, it was pushed back to 03 PM local time when the temperature was down to 36 degrees Celsius and the humidity to 60 per cent.

It is not the first time this year that hot weather has taken centre stage in China. In the same competition, two players, Britain’s Emma Raducanu and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, were forced to retire after failing to deliver in the challenging conditions.

Ostapenko, later in a post on her Instagram, revealed that she retired after suffering a heat stroke. “It was a tough day,” wrote Ostapenko. “I suffered a heat stroke today. Thank you China for the atmosphere, emotions and incredible energy from the crowd. I am truly sorry that I had to finish the match this way. Thank you to all my Chinese fans. I will be back stronger next year.” Former US Open winner Bianca Andreescu, in a post on her Instagram account, compared the outdoor situation in Wuhan as playing in Sauna. : "Wuhan weather really said: ‘Go play tennis in a sauna,” wrote Andreescu.

The Wuhan Open is not the only competition affected by extreme weather this year. Just 500 miles away, the men’s ATP 1000 event, the Shanghai Masters, has also been impacted because of tough weather. Top-seed and world number two Jannik Sinner retired in the third-round match against the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor. Towards the end of the match, Sinner was having so many cramps that he could hardly walk back to the locker room.

On the third day of the competition, Norway’s Casper Ruud struggled with fitness problems and was forced to retire in the third set of the round of 64 clash against Belgium’s Zizou Bergs. Later, Serbia’s legendary tennis star Novak Djokovic had also been seen vomiting on the court. Djokovic also highlighted the issue during a press conference after one of his matches.

The 24-time Grand Slam winner stated that things are going from bad to worse and admitted that, even for someone like him, it was really tough to deal with it. "I’ve been saying it before, it’s the same for every player that steps out on the court, but it’s brutal,” said Djokovic. “It’s brutal when you have over 80 per cent humidity day after day for the guys. Particularly when they are playing during the day with heat, with sun, it’s even more brutal. It is what it is, you just have to deal with it. For me, biologically a bit more challenging to deal with it."

Denmark’s Holger Rune also raised his voice about the difficulty of playing in such difficult conditions. The 22-year-old, whose journey in the competition ended in the quarterfinals on Thursday after losing to Poland’s Valentin Vacherot, asked the authorities to find a way to set a weather limit that would allow athletes to go out and perform their best on the court. “Why doesn't the ATP have a heat rule? You want a player to die on the court?,” asked Rune. “We can handle a certain amount of heat because we are fit, we're strong, we're mentally strong as well, but there's always a limit. I think it's also important to take care of your health. We need to survive.”