The hot and humid conditions in Shanghai are extraordinary and brutal, with the added effect of the greenhouse, indoors. Hence the withdrawals of Sinner, Machac, Ruud, Goffin, Medjedovic, Atmane, and Wu, with reports of severe fatigue from Zverev, Rune, and Fritz. The WTA suspended the match between Mertens and Kudermetova in Wuhan due to extreme heat (34 degrees), while the ATP, as Rune pointed out, does not have a rule to suspend matches for this situation (except for self-regulated tournaments like the Australian Open Extreme Heat Protocol). But beyond specific situations, and even the Masters 1000 extended to 10 days to increase the income of organizers and players, but which mainly enrich themselves with withdrawals, the problems of tennis and sports, in general, are others. And probably unsolvable. Paolo Bertolucci, former tennis player, then federal coach and Davis Cup captain, and now TV commentator, emphasizes: “Players grumble, protest but then sign up for many tournaments and also do exhibitions. They don’t give up anything. The calendar is tight, with 50 full weeks a year. They can give up, no one forces them, as Sinner said.” But, there’s a but. Unlike other sports that have few important events scheduled and spaced over time, for tennis players, the flip side of a calendar always full of rich and important opportunities, if they get injured, they don’t have the safety net of colleagues in other sports. Like belonging to military bodies or, as in soccer, a guaranteed contract. Their life can change overnight. So they take every opportunity to play that comes their way, despite the physical and mental stress. Modern sport, however, especially when it comes to the wealthier ones like tennis, demands ever greater and more continuous physical effort. Mainly due to the increased speed of execution. And so they are increasingly demanding and exasperated, even in preparation, with increasingly specialized training. In function of the evolution of technology, scientific research in the field of performance, with the continuous and exasperated search for anticipation and reactivity. Which force movements with less and less preparation and more and more explosiveness. With a new frontier to explore, that of Artificial Intelligence, which poses new challenges not to robots, but to human beings. Like muscles, nerves, tendons, bones, eyes. Organs that are continuously stressed and forced.
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