US Open 2023: Intense heat affects players again on Thursday
- Published
Nicolas Mahut (left) felt dizzy during his men's doubles semi-final on Thursday
US Open 2023 |
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Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Dates: 28 August-10 September |
Coverage: Daily live text and radio commentaries across the BBC Sport website, app, BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra |
Hot temperatures affected players again at the US Open on Thursday, with Nicolas Mahut feeling dizzy and Rajeev Ram having to eat sushi mid-match.
American Ram asked for the food during his men's doubles semi-final win, later explaining it had been "so hot" that he could not eat enough before the match.
"In the warm-up it felt like I was sweating buckets. It felt like I was depleted a little bit," he said.
It comes after Daniil Medvedev said a player could "die" in the conditions.
The Russian described the heat as "brutal" in his men's singles quarter-final win over Andrey Rublev on Wednesday.
And they showed little sign of abating on Thursday at Flushing Meadows, where later the women's semi-finals will be taking place (from 00:00 BST).
French doubles player Mahut stopped playing midway through the 12th game of his men's doubles semi-final on the Louis Armstrong Stadium, telling the doctor he was feeling dizzy.
He was able to carry on playing but he and compatriot Pierre-Hugues Herbert lost in straight sets to Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden.
Ram had his sushi snack after he and Britain's Joe Salisbury had lost the second set of their men's doubles semi-final and it seemed to do the trick as they went on to beat Croatia's Ivan Dodig and American Austin Krajicek 7-5 3-6 6-3 to reach their third successive final.
"It was so hot earlier and I couldn't eat as much as I wanted before the match," he said. "I got my boy to get me a bit of sushi and I think it helped."
Temperatures in New York have been touching 35C, with a real-feel temperature - which takes into account the humidity, wind and cloud cover - going over 37C.
US Open organisers have been partially closing the roof on the main courts to provide some shade to players.
The tournament has a heat policy, which allows for a 10-minute break after the second set of a women's match and third set of a men's match when the temperatures hit 30.1C, with humidity readings also factored in.
Reading of the conditions are taken daily and every half an hour, beginning 30 minutes before the start of play.