But no one wants to be out in the boondocks on the likes of Court 13, which is where Ivan Dodig was on Wednesday when his body gave up on him.
Dodig and Frank Dancevic, the two biggest sufferers in the men’s draw over the past two days, have both been outraged by the attitude of the organisers. They have described this tournament as a disaster waiting to happen.
Others have pointed at the tragic case of Prayoga Achmadi, a 15-year-old Indonesian prospect, who collapsed and later died during a tournament in his home country in December.
Could it happen here? It is not impossible. Should we stop the tournament? No, but there is a case for bringing in a sort of 'siesta' in mid-afternoon when only the show courts would be in action.
As Dodig pointed out on Wednesday: “You can make a gap for a couple of hours, let’s say from 1 to 4pm. We have lights on the courts, TV can adapt a bit and it’s better for us if everybody plays the night session.”
Of course there would be significant inconvenience, especially for supporters. Yet the number of visitors to Melbourne Park has been significantly reduced by the weather in any case. You can imagine a site-wide night session creating a boisterous, party atmosphere – a little like People’s Monday did at Wimbledon.
With the forecast predicting 41 degrees for Thursday and perhaps even more for Friday, it could be time for the organisers to act. Those players who suffered in the heat over the last two days will be even more vulnerable as they come back for a second dose.
Roger Federer may have said on Tuesday that dealing with these temperatures is “just a mental thing”, but then he is always cool in the heat – a natural sweat-free zone.
Not everybody is so fortunate. And it is not just a case of how hard you train, but of inherited physical make-up as well: one person in 500, as David Epstein’s excellent book The Sports Gene makes clear, is vulnerable to lethal collapses because they carry a gene that affects the way their heart is constructed.
Even if you put such nightmare scenarios to one side, modern tennis is already arguably too biased towards athleticism, as opposed to racket skills. It would be a shame if this Australian Open turned in to a battle of survival as much as skill.
Players wilt in extreme heat: in pictures
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