The 1978 Australian Open Champion, Chris O'Neil, believes the heat at this year's tournament poses a real threat to health
• Kevin Mitchell: The players should just get on with it
I had only one major run-in with extreme heat in my time – many years ago now – but its effects I remember vividly. The symptoms of heatstroke continued to wrack my body long after the match was over, with severe vomiting, delirium and disorientation lasting into the night. I was horribly sick and required medical attention in the form of a drip to rehydrate after playing through 40C-plus heat.
Even that was not as extreme as what the players are going through at Melbourne Park this week. In my days on the tour, the majority of tournaments were played on grass courts. Today hard courts are the most common – a surface that reflects the heat like a concrete oven, rather than absorbing it like grass. In an air temperature of 40C (104F), it's possible for the surface temperature of a hard court to exceed 60C.
With temperatures exceeding 40C at the Open yesterday, are tournament directors putting the health of players in danger by allowing play to continue? Sure the majority of matches were completed without calls for medical attention, but there were also many that required treatment for serious conditions. Dutchman Robin Haase retired with cramps, China's Peng Shuai vomited and cramped-up, and Canadian Frank Dancevic passed out and hallucinated Snoopy onto the court. The conditions were called inhumane. I would agree.
Even though conditions are the same for both players, I believe their ability to deal with heat differs. Genetically, some players sweat at a higher rate than others. It was a trait that dogged Pat Rafter's career. He would sometimes sweat so much it was impossible for his body to re-absorb the amount of fluid it was losing. Regardless of how acclimatised players are to heat, regardless of how fit they are, some will not withstand extreme temperatures as well as others.
I prefer the heat to the cold and seemed to cope better than many of my peers. Even so the effects of severe heat were a danger to me if left untreated. The suffocating waves of extreme heat on court make you feel unsteady, delirious or disorientated. Dehydration and the loss of electrolytes throws your system out of balance, can bring on vomiting and diarrhoea and become a serious danger to the body. Mentally it becomes next to impossible to focus; irritability and confusion can take hold.
These were symptoms Switzerland's Martina Hingis displayed in the 2002 Australian Open final against America's Jennifer Capriati. After a heat break between the second and third sets, Florida-bred Capriati overcame a depleted Hingis in the deciding set in 35C heat. No amount of pre-season training could have given a woman who grew up near the Swiss Alps the heat toughness of a woman raised in sun-soaked Florida.
Players from my era could well say: "we did it without suncream, heat rules or hats". However, the game was not the same, the surface was not the same, and the level of physicality was not the same. It's like saying smoking isn't a danger to your health because everyone used to do that too.
We've realised the heat is a danger. The year the heat rule was introduced it was in excess of 40C for about four days in a row. It was awful to see players vomiting on court and forfeiting, barely able to move let alone hit the ball with purpose.
With temperatures predicted to be similar this year, let's hope that the extreme heat policy is enough "protection". Reported by guardian.co.uk 16 hours ago.
• Kevin Mitchell: The players should just get on with it
I had only one major run-in with extreme heat in my time – many years ago now – but its effects I remember vividly. The symptoms of heatstroke continued to wrack my body long after the match was over, with severe vomiting, delirium and disorientation lasting into the night. I was horribly sick and required medical attention in the form of a drip to rehydrate after playing through 40C-plus heat.
Even that was not as extreme as what the players are going through at Melbourne Park this week. In my days on the tour, the majority of tournaments were played on grass courts. Today hard courts are the most common – a surface that reflects the heat like a concrete oven, rather than absorbing it like grass. In an air temperature of 40C (104F), it's possible for the surface temperature of a hard court to exceed 60C.
With temperatures exceeding 40C at the Open yesterday, are tournament directors putting the health of players in danger by allowing play to continue? Sure the majority of matches were completed without calls for medical attention, but there were also many that required treatment for serious conditions. Dutchman Robin Haase retired with cramps, China's Peng Shuai vomited and cramped-up, and Canadian Frank Dancevic passed out and hallucinated Snoopy onto the court. The conditions were called inhumane. I would agree.
Even though conditions are the same for both players, I believe their ability to deal with heat differs. Genetically, some players sweat at a higher rate than others. It was a trait that dogged Pat Rafter's career. He would sometimes sweat so much it was impossible for his body to re-absorb the amount of fluid it was losing. Regardless of how acclimatised players are to heat, regardless of how fit they are, some will not withstand extreme temperatures as well as others.
I prefer the heat to the cold and seemed to cope better than many of my peers. Even so the effects of severe heat were a danger to me if left untreated. The suffocating waves of extreme heat on court make you feel unsteady, delirious or disorientated. Dehydration and the loss of electrolytes throws your system out of balance, can bring on vomiting and diarrhoea and become a serious danger to the body. Mentally it becomes next to impossible to focus; irritability and confusion can take hold.
These were symptoms Switzerland's Martina Hingis displayed in the 2002 Australian Open final against America's Jennifer Capriati. After a heat break between the second and third sets, Florida-bred Capriati overcame a depleted Hingis in the deciding set in 35C heat. No amount of pre-season training could have given a woman who grew up near the Swiss Alps the heat toughness of a woman raised in sun-soaked Florida.
Players from my era could well say: "we did it without suncream, heat rules or hats". However, the game was not the same, the surface was not the same, and the level of physicality was not the same. It's like saying smoking isn't a danger to your health because everyone used to do that too.
We've realised the heat is a danger. The year the heat rule was introduced it was in excess of 40C for about four days in a row. It was awful to see players vomiting on court and forfeiting, barely able to move let alone hit the ball with purpose.
With temperatures predicted to be similar this year, let's hope that the extreme heat policy is enough "protection". Reported by guardian.co.uk 16 hours ago.