Stefanos Tsitsipas, Cameron Norrie, Andy Murray share their heat rule drama - US Open diary

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Another hot day in New York resulted in more drama across the sweltering US Open grounds.

    The new men’s extreme heat policy that was introduced for the first time on Tuesday and was also in place on Wednesday caused some confusion among players and even resulted in an unfair code violation.

    The rule allows men to take an off-court 10-minute break after the third set due to the hot weather conditions. The women, who have always had a heat rule, take that break after the second set.

    If you’re lucky and are on Arthur Ashe stadium, or a court close to the locker room, you have enough time to take a cold shower or jump in the ice bath to cool off. But if you’re further away, those 10 minutes are ot as useful as you think.

    During his four-set defeat to Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday, Stefanos Tsitsipas first forgot about the new rule and wasted nearly four minutes sat at his ench on court after winning the third set.

  • Stefanos Tsitsipas interview: Next Gen star on ‘reversing’ the Greek mentality and rising through the ranks

  • By the time he realized he can go take a 10-minute break anywhere with at least an AirCon, he realized he was too far from the locker room and wouldn’t have enough time.

    Why did the umpire not remind him? Who knows!

    “I thought to myself, six minutes more, I don’t know if I will make it to the ice bath. I was pretty far away, the court we were playing. It was not like [Novak] Djokovic yesterday who was next to the Centre Court. He just walked in the locker room and did what he did,” said Tsitsipas.

    “But, no, I felt like it was a long distance for me, and it’s not necessary to spend that much going back and forth. Hopefully I’m going to use it more clever, this 10-minute break in the future, hopefully.”

    Cameron Norrie was dealt a rough hand when he returned from his break during his four-set loss to Dusan Lajovic because the umpire said he had exceeded the allocated 10 minutes despite the fact that the official who was escorting him told him he was on time. Apparently the watches of the oncourt official and the one with Norrie didn’t follow the same clock and it was the Brit who paid the price in the end, receiving a time violation.

    The players are also not given clear instructions on where they can go during that break. Norrie just needed a place with air-conditioning.

    “I went to the media room because I know that’s where the coldest AC is. Chilled there for what I thought — I had a guy with me, showed me eight minutes. I came back and it was 9 minutes 15 on his watch. Apparently on the ref’s watch it was 10 minutes 50.

    “I don’t know, with the confusion between my ref and the actual ref, I don’t know. I don’t really understand it. Apparently I got a warning. I don’t even know what that means, but…”

    The match between Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco also witnessed drama related to the rule. Murray complained to officials that Verdasco was talking to his coach during the break, which is against the rules, before the Spaniard later denied it.

    “Verdasco is in the locker room with both coach and trainer, the referee and supervisor are just twiddling their thumbs. I had to tell them because no one knows the f—ing rules,” Murray told chair umpire Nico Helwerth.

    The former world No. 1 later said in his press conference: “I checked the rules beforehand, and I spoke to my team. We were clear you don’t speak to your coaches whatever. They obviously weren’t in there for long, but you got to do better than that. This is one of the biggest events in the world. If you have rules like that, you need to stick with them because one player getting to speak to the coach and the other not is not fair.”

    Murray added: “I went for a shower. He was having an ice bath. When I came out of the shower, his coach and his — I don’t know if he’s playing doubles with him, but one of the Spanish doubles players was in there chatting to him, and you’re not allowed to speak to your coach. I went and told the supervisor.

    “I said, ‘What are you guys doing? I mean, there’s clear rules here and you’re allowing this to take place’. I don’t get it. Then he ran through, ‘Oh, you’re not allowed to speak’.”

    Verdasco later told the press that he didn’t speak a single word with his coach in the locker room, but he did chat to Marcos Baghdatis and the Cypriot’s coach while they were both taking ice baths.

    “I know exactly the rule and I don’t want to be the one breaking it,” insisted Verdasco.

    Murray had the last word though, giving a sarcastic take on the matter on his Instagram, accompanied with the hash-tag “#liarliarpantsonfire”.

    It wasn’t just the men’s side that was eventful on that front. Timea Bacsinszky told sports writer Courtney Nguyen that she wanted to change clothes off court, was taken to a public bathroom where fans were asking for autographs, couldn’t find a place to change so tried to change in the cleaners’ closet but one of the cleaning personnel got mad at her for attempting to do so.

    Hardly something you want to go through during a match.

    Recommended