Men’s tennis body buckles: Games to be paused, stopped if heat hits break point

AT the aussie open up in 2014, canadian river lawn tennis participant Frank Dancevic started to hallucinate on court. His attention needed to be on the fluffy yellow tennis ball. But as the temperature in Melbourne Park crossed 40°C, Dancevic suddenly saw the famed cartoon character Snoopy.Then he fainted.Those dangerous playing conditions prompted the many governing bodies of tennis to work towards implementing heat policies. The four Grand Slams which are governed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and even the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) adopted guidelines.On Monday, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) - the governing body of men’s tennis - finally introduced a policy of its own, one that will come into effect from the 2026 season.“The new regulation is based on the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) and introduces clear thresholds for cooling measures and suspension of play in best-of-three singles matches,” the ATP said in a statement.Under the new guidelines, a 10-minute cooling break will be allowed at the end of the second set if the wet bulb globe temperature, or WBGT (which measures heat stress under direct sunlight) reaches 30.1 degrees or higher, should a player request for the break. If the heat crosses 32.2 degrees, then play will be suspended. WBGT is a composite index that takes into account four factors to measure heat stress: temperature, humidity, radiation and ventilation or wind. It is a widely used metric across sport and sports science.“The new heat rule provides a structured, medically supported approach to managing extreme heat, with the objective of safeguarding player health, while also improving conditions for spectators, officials, ball persons, and tournament staff,” the statement added.With this, ATP becomes the last tennis body to implement such a change - the WTA’s heat policy came into effect in 1992. And it took a lot to shake the ATP off its inertia towards introducing a heat rule.Consider the growing number of heat-related player retirements from matches. In the nine ATP 1000 Masters series this year alone, there were 41 retirements and walkovers, including seven from the Shanghai Masters in October. There were nine in Madrid and eight in Cincinnati.That fortnight in the sprawling Chinese metropolis along the East China Sea saw temperatures soar up to 35 degrees with around 80% humidity. In that tournament, world No.2 Jannik Sinner failed to complete a match for only the second time this season, as he struggled with cramps before retiring from his third round match against Tallon Griekspoor.Sinner did not say much about the heat. But others did.With an ice-towel around his neck while a physio checked his blood pressure, world No.15 Holger Rune asked a veteran ATP tournament supervisor, “Why doesn’t the ATP have a heat rule? You want a player to die on the court?”Armstrong answered: “I don’t know, it’s a good question.”“I think there should be some kind of rule,” Rune said later, as reported by The Guardian. “We can handle a certain amount of heat because we are fit, we’re strong, we’re mentally strong as well, but there’s always a limit. I think it’s also important to take care of your health. We need to survive.”The heat policy will benefit players already struggling to compete in an increasingly physical sport. Players have to deal with slow court conditions and tennis balls that are causing more injury worries. And then there is the heat.The tennis tour is designed to follow the sun. The season starts in the Australian summer and steadily moves up to the Northern Hemisphere once spring begins. By October, when Europe starts to get colder and playing outdoors becomes more difficult, the tour moves East towards the warmer climates of China, Japan and South Korea in September-October.Consider this: In the 2025 season alone, world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz began his season in Australia, then he went to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, followed by a trip to Doha, Qatar, and then he flew across the Atlantic to Indian Wells. Tournaments in Miami, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome followed before he went to Paris to win the French Open crown. He then went up to London, then to Cincinnati, the US Open in New York and the Laver Cup in San Francisco to end his American sojourn for this season. After that, he travelled to Tokyo, then back to Paris, and finally to Turin for the ATP Finals. That’s approximately 81,000km this year alone.It is through this lens that the heat policy is crucial — to shore up control and agency for players exposed to a ruthless schedule in a ruthlessly heating world.