Global Warming Forces Tennis Officials to Make Changes to the US Open

[Pelican Press 0]

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Global Warming Forces Tennis Officials to Make Changes to the US Open

As New York City contends with rising heat and unpredictable storms because of climate change, so does its marquee tennis tournament, the U.S. Open.

Weather has long been a wild card for outdoor sporting events. But global warming is forcing tennis officials to make lasting changes to the tournament to protect spectators and athletes.

“I’m checking in with the weather more than I care to admit,” said Jake Garner, the tournament referee, who oversees all officiating matters, including the daily schedule of play.

In 2021, remnants from Hurricane Ida delayed matches and

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, but extreme heat has been the more common threat. Last year, several days in September climbed into the 90s, and during a quarterfinal match, a former champion, Daniil Medvedev,

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: “One player is gonna ****, and they’re gonna see.”

Last year’s heat prompted tournament officials to find a new purpose for the retractable roofs over the tournament’s main venues, the Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong Stadiums. Originally designed to prevent rain delays, the roofs were used, for the first time, for shade from the sweltering sun. This year, that quick fix is now

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.

To determine when to close the roofs, the U.S. Open relies on the

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, a way of measuring heat stress in direct sunlight that combines factors like wind speed and humidity. Once that temperature exceeds 86 degrees, the roofs will partially close. This is also when a 10-minute break will kick in for players during matches.

“Shade is an imperative part of the discussion,” said Daniel Zausner, the chief operating officer for the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the sprawling complex in Queens that is home to the U.S. Open. “Like the rest of the city, we are trying to stay ahead of the curve.”

The same could be said for the entire world of athletics, said

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, an assistant professor of sport ecology at the University of Toronto and the author of the book “Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport.”

While some organizers of sporting events are taking steps against rising temperatures, the dangers of training and competing in extreme heat are pervasive, Dr. Orr said.

Just this month in the ******* States, she said, several high-school football players ***** in separate incidents from heat exposure during practice, including

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when the heat index was approaching 98 degrees. “It’s 100 percent preventable,” she said. “We need to educate people; it takes 30 minutes for heat illness to become catastrophic.”

The key to navigating climate change and outdoor athletics is scheduling, Dr. Orr said, from shifting entire sports seasons to cooler parts of the year to moving individual games and practices to later or earlier in the day. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar, for example, was delayed until November, when it was cooler, and provided air-conditioning in open-air stadiums. “All sports will need to have that conversation,” Dr. Orr said.

A shift to cooler parts of the day could bode well for the U.S. Open’s popular night sessions, which begin this year on Monday.

Day matches, which start between 11 a.m. and noon and take place throughout the afternoon, can be a challenge for players and spectators, especially on the outer courts, which lack shade. During a qualifying match on a mild 76-degree day this week, many fans were using their own umbrellas and hats with protective flaps to stay out of the sun.

After that match, Margarita Meyendorff, 77, a writer from High Falls, N.Y., recuperated under a tree on the grounds. “The middle of the day is difficult,” she said. “I don’t know how these people play in this heat.”

Since 2018, when a

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at the U.S. Open forced five male players to retire from their matches with heat-related illnesses in one day alone, tournament officials have been making improvements to navigate the elements. To start with, they hired the weather technology company

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, which predicts the impact of weather down to individual courts.

“We had traditionally relied on radar data from La Guardia Airport,” Mr. Zausner said. “But it could be sunny there, and raining here.” Throughout the tournament, officials have a daily meeting with the service, which counts the ******* States Air Force and the airline JetBlue among its clients.

For overheated players, every court on site has a designated cooling room at most a court away. Players are also provided with ice-packed towels and devices that ***** cold air.

Units for monitoring the WetBulb Globe Temperature are in the tennis center’s four major stadiums, and are placed “as close to the court as we can get without impeding play,” Mr. Garner said.

The WetBulb concept was first applied to marathon runners who had started to get heat-related illnesses because of high humidity, even when it was not extremely hot outside, said Dr. Melissa Leber, the director of player medical services for the U.S. Open. Dr. Leber’s team advises athletes about proper hydration, including electrolyte replacement.

“A lot of the heat illness we see, cramping, exhaustion, has to do with an overabundance of water,” Dr. Leber said. “So we carry sodium packets.” There is also messaging in the locker rooms for players to monitor the ****** of their ******, she said.

For spectators, a row of trees has been planted between two of the major stadiums, with more trees being added every year, Mr. Zausner said. There are also air-conditioned first-aid stations, misting machines and occasional free giveaways of hand-held fans, and over the past two years, the number of water stations across the grounds has doubled, Mr. Zausner said. In Ashe, there are thermal cameras at every level, he added, because “heat does rise and gets trapped under the roof.”

Dr. Leber emphasized that spectators should take the heat just as seriously as the athletes. So far, there has not been an uptick in heat-related illnesses among fans, said Connor Fitzpatrick, the vice president of

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, a live-event medical services company that is on-site during the tournament.

But spectators who get mesmerized by long rallies should not sit in the same place for too long, especially if it’s in the sun, Dr. Orr added. “When you have a heat *******, your heart is working way too hard to move blood around the body and specifically, to move blood to the skin, because that’s what allows you to sweat,” she said. So it is important to move to keep the blood circulating.

“Walk to the concourse, stand under a tree, have some water. And bring a hat — it’s your own shade machine.”

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