Soaked with sweat as the temperature neared 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius) on the hottest day at this year’s U.S. Open, 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev walked slowly to towel off between points of his victory Wednesday, looked into a courtside camera and issued what sounded like a mix between a warning and a plea.
“You cannot imagine,” he said. “One player (is) gonna die, and they’re gonna see.”
“The only thing that is a little bit, let’s call it dangerous, is that the question is: How far could we go?” Medvedev, a 27-year-old Russian seeded No. 3, said after eliminating Andrey Rublev 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the semifinals at Flushing Meadows for the fourth time.
“I’m not sure what can we do. Because probably we cannot stop the tournament for four days — because it’s been, what, three, four days it’s been brutal like this? — because then it basically ruins everything: the TV, even the tickets, everything. It ruins everything,” said Medvedev, who said he needed an ice bath and something to eat after leaving the court. “So I don’t think this could be done.”
An AP analysis shows that it is feeling hotter and hotter at Grand Slam tournaments in recent decades, reflecting the climate change seen in heat waves around the globe this summer. Week 2 at the U.S. Open is pushing players to the limit.
They’re using ice — so much ice, in plastic bags or wrapped in towels — and courtside tubes blowing cold air to try to stay cool.
Medvedev used an inhaler during a second-set changeover Wednesday while being looked at by a doctor, who checked his breathing with a stethoscope. Rublev leaned back on his sideline chair as if he would rather be anywhere else.
“At the end of the first set, I couldn’t see the ball anymore,” Medvedev said, adding that he looked across the net at No. 8 seed Rublev — his countryman, good pal and godfather to his daughter — and thought: “Wow. It seems like he cannot run anymore.”
