At the Australian Open, it's not the heat, it's the stupidity

The Australian Sauna Championships, disguised as a Grand Slam tennis tournament, finally ended Saturday. Advancement had depended on survival, on remaining upright, on shade and hydration and on the coolest accessory in sports, something called an ice vest.

Much of the first week of the Australian Open unfolded like an extreme sport.

For four days, starting Tuesday, the temperature climbed over 40 degrees Celsius (104 F). It was the longest heat wave in the Melbourne area in more than 100 years, according to the The Herald Sun. The newspaper said 243 people had gone to the hospital for heat exhaustion - and that was before the oppressive temperatures continued Friday.

At the Open in those four days, one player hallucinated and fainted. Another vomited. The soles of one player's sneakers melted, as did the bottom of another player's water bottle. Cramps were common, as were complaints from stars and journeymen alike. One such complaint came from Ivan Dodig of Croatia, who said he had wondered whether he would die on the court.

The temperatures began to fall Friday night, and by Saturday it was a brisk 23 degrees Celsius (73 F). But the takeaway was less about the temperatures and more about the gulf that widened over the week between the way officials portrayed the impact of the heat and what happened with the players. The tournament chose the nothing-to-see-here approach, and the longer that went on, the more absurd it seemed, amid the sea of red faces and collapsed bodies and heads balancing ice packs the way a model would a book.

This was an actual quotation from Dr. Tim Wood, the tournament's chief medical officer, to the BBC: "We've evolved on the high plains of Africa chasing antelope for eight hours under these conditions."

And this was an actual quotation from a Canadian player named Frank Dancevic: "I was dizzy from the middle of the first set, and then I saw Snoopy and I thought, 'Wow, Snoopy, that's weird.'"

Wood, in the BBC interview, said that from what he termed a "medical perspective," humans had long adapted to exercise in extreme heat. He finished that thought with, "Whether it is humane or not is a whole other issue."

That showed the disconnect between the players and the tournament. That showed the disconnect between officials and reality. See the logic? It was hard to.

Whether anything is humane or not should be the whole issue. This is professional tennis, not modern warfare, or indentured servitude. Humanity should be a baseline consideration.

Even if in that instance Wood simply misspoke, his comments fit into a larger pattern from tournament officials. While Andy Murray called the conditions "inhumane" and other players complained of a lack of information or a confusing "extreme-heat policy," the Open continued to issue news releases citing the lack of players who had called for medical attention.

In other words, no one died.

Even as I typed that, television cameras zoomed in on Rod Laver Arena, where trainers attended to Zheng Jie of China. They rubbed ice on her arms and legs as she lay on her back. Her eyes were glassy. They took her temperature. She returned to the court but lost to Casey Dellacqua of Australia. Neither of them chased any antelopes.

That prompted some obvious questions: Why not close the roof? What was the point in keeping it open? To optimize the suffering? To maximize the heat?

Wood maintained that tennis players are at relatively low risk in extreme heat, compared with athletes in other sports, like those who run long distances. But it would seem, logically at least, that all who chase tennis balls in 100-degree temperatures would be at some risk, at an increased risk, compared with those who sit on a couch or play in cooler conditions.

The problem is not so much that the temperatures soared this week. Players expect heat at the Australian Open, a tournament largely defined by suffering.

When you think of the first tennis Grand Slam each year, you think about Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal and 50-shot rallies and six-hour matches.

Often that heat is accompanied by less humidity than players experience later in the season, when they enter tournaments in Washington and suburban Cincinnati and New York. Those places can feel even hotter.

"If it was humid here, it would be an even bigger danger to players," said Justin Gimelstob, a Tennis Channel analyst. "But, I mean, it's oppressive out there. It's stifling."

If the players are going to expect high temperatures, they should also expect a clearly defined policy on when matches will be stopped, as well as frequent updates and the smallest hint of recognition that what they are being asked to do is difficult. Even if they are not chasing antelopes.

A little humanity goes a long way, especially in a heat wave.

Hallucination Snoopy said so.

 

 

© 2014 New York Times News Service