Seeing the number two of the world getting out of the tennis court trying to use the racket as a stick is very sad: the cramps are not serious, fortunately, but painful yes and you identify with the evident suffering.
The moment when the game stops, with the withdrawal of Jannik Sinner no longer able to walk supported with arms, not able to take the bag, in Shanghai the watch marks 0.42, 42 minutes beyond midnight. Tennis, you know, especially for the best that generally take place during the times of the most profitable tickets, is also made of long expectations, due to the toughest of previous games, and the times can also be very balzani.
At that moment, while Sinner clings improbabiment to the racket, trying to use it as a very short stick for his meter and 91, so as not to risk falling, 3B weather in Shanghai marks over 28 degrees and 95%humidity. Players have been having signs of physical difficulties for days Because inside the building you don’t breathe, thanks to a very heavy pollution hood that humidity and the absence of wind do not help to sweep. Terence Atmane and Hamad Mededovic had already withdrawn during the tournament, while Medvedeev, Ruud and Comea had signs of heavy fatigue. In the end Tallon Griekspoor the Sinner’s opponent spoke of extreme conditions.
After all, it was seen: sweat that impregnated clothes and shoes almost they had been immersed in the water, a loss of liquids so copious that he cannot reinteg it by drinking water and saline supplements, A dangerous condition also for the balance of tennis players always at risk of sliding in the soups and lines of the wet field.
Equal conditions for everyone, of course, therefore no intention to complain for the single retreat, but prohibitive conditions: perhaps the ATP, the association that governs professional tennis a reflection on the standard of the organization of tournaments should do it, the logic of the show that must continue is not worth much in these cases. What has been seen in these days: athletes who feel bad in the field, interrupted games, play readed by conditions that induce errors caused by exhausted bodies and lies drowned by fatigue is not the kind of show for which you willingly pay a ticket.
And among other things, it is a risky show, because at certain conditions the danger of accidents even serious accidents. All the more so in the last part of the season, when many, according to the rules, must play a lot to recover points or not to miss them, in a moment of the year in which the load of a chopped circuit, without breaks, with a chille mechanism for which each tournament are lost the points conquered the previous year are already brought.
A system that asks to play a lot and win so not to lose ranking, and that risks crushing especially the best, the most constant that always play the tournaments in full or almost, and then start again immediately from another partwithout the time to recover. If it is true that the calendar players can manage it (but up to a certain point), the conditions should be evaluated before.
In recent days Holger Rune has protested by asking why the ATP, a very rich circuit that can perhaps afford to say a few no if the standard is not up to par, there has been no rules on the theme of temperatures and climatic conditions. Perhaps it is time to ask the problem for the good of tennis, which we would not like to see transformed into a life path, in which those who remain physically intact wins.
