Tennis and extreme heat: Why the ATP’s lack of heat rule came under fire at Shanghai Masters
Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.
This week, the ATP Tour came under fire over its extreme heat policy, the women’s top two continued their interesting years, and one of the most consistent players out there made their top-10 debut.
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‘Do you want a player to die on court?’
Valentin Vacherot’s fairytale Shanghai Masters win over his cousin, Arthur Rinderknech, was the tennis story of the tournament, but the event was defined by stifling heat and humidity.
World No. 2 Jannik Sinner succumbed to debilitating cramps against Tallon Griekspoor in the third round. Novak Djokovic vomited on court later the same day during his win against Yannick Hanfmann. Daniil Medvedev was so wary of exacerbating his cramps against Learner Tien in the fourth round that he even asked if a ball girl could remove his sweat-soaked shirt. A male ATP supervisor was on hand to perform the task.
But it was Denmark’s Holger Rune who posed the question as he received a medical timeout against Ugo Humbert on the same day Sinner had to retire: “Why doesn’t the ATP have a heat rule? You want a player to die on the court?”
In a news conference a couple of days later, Rune said, “There should be some kind of rule. We can handle a certain amount of heat because we are fit, strong and mentally strong as well, but there’s a limit. It’s also important to take care of your health. We need to survive.”
In his next match, Rune’s body finally gave out when he cramped up at the end of a three-set defeat to Vacherot. There were seven retirements across the tournament, and many more incidents of players cramping or barely reaching the baseline within the allotted 25 seconds between points. Last Sunday’s match between Taylor Fritz and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard — huge servers who tend to play short points — saw both players barely moving in the closing stages.
The conditions were similarly brutal at the Wuhan Open, a WTA 1000 (one tier below Grand Slams) played in 95-degree conditions until the final weekend. WTA world No. 2 Iga Świątek expressed similar sentiments to Rune during an on-court interview. “I hope the other matches will be scheduled at a time where girls can compete, rather than just die on the court,” she said.
The WTA has an extreme heat policy. When the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT, which measures air temperature, humidity, and the impact of sunlight and wind) exceeds 86.1 degrees, players can take a 10-minute heat break at the end of the second set. Either player can request that the rule be used. Play was suspended on outside courts and the roof closed on the main show court a couple of times.
The ATP takes a more ad-hoc approach. “Under ATP rules, decisions regarding the suspension of play due to weather conditions — including extreme heat — lie with the on-site ATP supervisor, in coordination with on-site medical teams and local authorities,” said a spokesperson for the organisation.
“In parallel, the ATP medical services team implements several measures in cases of extreme heat to help protect player health during competition.
“This remains under active review and additional measures, including the implementation of an official heat policy, are being evaluated in consultation with players, tournaments, and medical experts.
“Player safety remains a top priority for the ATP.”
Charlie Eccleshare
Two ‘strange’ seasons for the WTA top two?
Judging only by the noise that surrounds them at the end of a lot of tennis tournaments, it might appear that world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Świątek have been muddling through the tennis season.
Sabalenka flung her racket in frustration at the end of her Wuhan Open semifinal loss to Jessica Pegula of the U.S., fortunate that she both avoided striking a ball kid and any further punishment from the chair umpire. Świątek suffered a tired defeat to an inspired Jasmine Paolini, who was playing for her place in the WTA Tour finals, in the previous round.
Most players on the planet would kill to supposedly muddle as they have. As for the past few years, Świątek and Sabalenka have opened up a pretty big lead over everyone else in the rankings with just a few weeks left in the season, dominating the later rounds of the biggest tournaments and winning titles.
World No. 1 Sabalenka has 10,000 points for the year and a nearly 1,700-point lead over Świątek. She won the U.S. Open and two WTA 1000 titles at the Miami and Madrid Opens. She reached two more Grand Slam finals. The definition of a stellar season.
The problem — and it’s an excellent problem to have — is that she has lost those two other Grand Slam finals, as well as the BNP Paribas Open final at Indian Wells.
Świątek is in a similar boat. Her supposedly down year included semifinals at two Grand Slams and two WTA 1000s, as well as a first Wimbledon title and a WTA 1000 win at the Cincinnati Open. She has risen back to world No. 2, overtaking Coco Gauff after falling down the rankings in failing to defend her absurd clay-court record from 2024, when she won the three biggest tournaments on the surface in a row.
She probably won’t get back to world No. 1 by the end of the season, but she is nearly 1,800 points up on Gauff for the year, and well set to attack the ranking she wants back next year. She has spent the season trying to rebuild the counterpunching style that made her the best in the world, with defeats most often coming when the type of tennis she wants to move on — and which became her default setting — returns in tight moments.
It’s been a weird ride for the two best players in the world, but only because of the ridiculously high standards they set for themselves, and others set for them.
Matt Futterman
A title for a former world No. 1 at a unique event
Germany’s Angelique Kerber won a tournament on Sunday. Don’t worry, the tennis world did not somehow miss a world No. 1 returning from retirement: Kerber was competing at the Luxembourg Ladies Tennis Masters, the tournament designed specifically for players who recently ended their careers.
Kerber, 37, retired from tennis last year. She beat France’s Alizé Cornet, who also said goodbye in 2024, before doing so again in September after a brief return. Eugenie Bouchard, who retired in August, was another big-name player in action, while 42-year-old four-time major winner Kim Clijsters, who unfortunately tore her Achilles in her first match on Friday, was one of a couple of slightly older players.
Former WTA Tour players love the competitive outlet that the Luxembourg event provides. Typically, the only real option for former players is to play hit-and-giggle exhibition events that can be good fun, but tend to be less satisfying.
For Kerber, the event gave her a target after giving birth to her second child, Ben, in June. “This was actually a goal for me to come back and have a good preparation again after such a short time and to be ready to play a match,” Kerber said in a phone interview Friday, having just beaten Belgium’s 29-year-old former world No. 13 Kirsten Flipkens to reach the semifinals. Kerber enjoyed catching up with familiar faces and being back in a competitive environment.
The tournament originated as an exhibition event in 1991, and went back to being one four years ago. But from 1996 to 2021, it was an official WTA 250 tournament, with an end-of-season slot that invited big-name players to take wildcards with the chance to accrue points before the WTA Tour Finals. Clijsters won it five times, including the first WTA title of her career in 1999, when she was 16. Other winners include Grand Slam champions Ana Ivanovic, Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati.
The tournament was known for its quirkiness and intimate venue, with only a few courts and a roof so low the ball would often hit it during play. The current iteration is played at an even smaller venue, the Coque, with a capacity of around 1,500. There are always good crowds in what is a minuscule country, with Luxembourg’s population of around 675,000 putting it just below the Solomon Islands.
After beating Flipkens on Friday, Kerber, a three-time Grand Slam champion, took out former world No. 16 and doubles world No. 1 Barbora Strycova, ahead of a tight 1-6, 6-3, 10-7 win over Cornet in Sunday’s final.
Kerber said she is enjoying having time with her baby and her two-year-old daughter, Liana, in retirement. She is working with the German Tennis Federation, but is finalizing the details on where and how she can add the most value.
The weekend, though, was all about getting her hands on some more silverware.
Charlie Eccleshare
A beacon of consistency breaking new ground?
What is the opposite of bursting onto the scene? The cliché is used in sports to describe a player, usually a youngster, suddenly catapulting themselves into the limelight.
The opposite of that might be Ekaterina Alexandrova today entering the world’s top 10 for the first time. Alexandrova, a generally unassuming person and player who turns 31 next month, is the second-oldest player to make their top-10 debut since Opta began collecting the data in 1984.
Even more stealthily, Alexandrova has reached the career-high ranking without any real breakout moment in 2025. For casual tennis followers who only focus on the Grand Slams, Alexandrova could still probably walk past them without recognition. She has never reached the last eight of a major, nor the final of a WTA 1000 event.
Instead, her progress up the rankings from No. 28 at the start of the year is down to her reaching seven semifinals and three finals, winning one title: the WTA 500 (the rung down from the 1000 events) Linz Open in February.
No breakthrough moment, just the type of steady progress that has typified her career.
Charlie Eccleshare
Shot of the week
China’s Zhang Shuai was 5-0 up in the final set of her Wuhan Open match against Sorana Cîrstea, before Cîrstea got back to 5-4. On Shuai’s third match point, Cîrstea appeared to take control with an inside-out forehand / drop-shot combination, but then Shuai did this:
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Vacherot (Q) def. Rinderknech 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters (1000) in Shanghai. It is the Monégasque’s first ATP Tour title.
🎾 WTA:
🏆 Coco Gauff (3) def. Jessica Pegula (6) 6-4, 7-5 to win the Wuhan Open (1000) in Wuhan, China. It is the American’s second title of the year.
📈📉 On the rise / Down the line
📈 Vacherot ascends 164 spots from No. 204 to No. 40, a career high, after his stunning run in Shanghai.
📈 Laura Siegemund re-enters the top 40 after rising 18 spots from No. 57 to No. 39.
📈 Arthur Rinderknech rises to a career high of No. 28, moving up 26 places from No. 54.
📉 Gaël Monfils falls 10 places from No. 55 to No. 65.
📉 Wang Xinyu drops 25 places from No. 37 to No. 62.
📉 David Goffin tumbles 22 spots from No. 83 to No. 105.
📅 Coming up
🎾 ATP
📍Almaty, Kazakhstan: Almaty Open (250) featuring Karen Khachanov, Medvedev, Alexander Bublik, Hamad Medjedovic.
📍Brussels: European Open (250) featuring Félix Auger-Aliassime, Lorenzo Musetti, Mpetshi Perricard, Zizou Bergs.
📍Stockholm: Nordic Open (250) featuring Sebastian Korda, Casper Ruud, Matteo Berrettini, Denis Shapovalov.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻: Tennis TV
🎾 WTA
📍Ningbo, China: Ningbo Open (500) featuring Elena Rybakina, Pegula, Emma Raducanu, Karolína Muchová.
📍Osaka, Japan: Japan Open (250) featuring Leylah Fernandez, Naomi Osaka, Alex Eala, Iva Jović.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S. / 💻: Tennis Channel
Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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