Watching Wimbledon this year meant spotting a common foe: extreme heat

Boston Globe

15 hours ago

Former US tennis player and coach Brad Gilbert, part of the ESPN team calling the two-week tournament (all the action is on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN on Disney+) predicted Alcaraz and his opponent, Italian elder statesman Fabio Fognini, would be battling 'hairdryer conditions' (hot and windy) and he was right. While tennis players are among the fittest professional athletes, dashing around Wimbledon's fast grass courts for five hours can be a struggle even in ideal conditions (
not
hot and windy.)
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It's hard to know if Monday's heat was the problem for defending Wimbledon champ Alcaraz, who labored to beat the 38-year-old Fognini in five sets, but it definitely affected some spectators. The match was delayed for several minutes in the fourth set so medical personnel could revive someone in the crowd who collapsed. The high temperatures did seemingly take a toll on Tunisian player Ons Jabeur, who abruptly withdrew from her first-round match after one set, and also on Russian Daniil Medvedev, a semifinalist at Wimbledon a year ago, who looked completely exhausted after losing to unheralded Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi in four sets.
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The weather wasn't all that players had to adjust to Monday. This is the first year that Wimbledon has dispensed with line judges and is relying instead on
Of course, not everyone likes the idea of
Mark Shanahan is a longtime Living/Arts reporter who writes music, movies, books, and television.
Mark Shanahan can be reached at