Arthur Cazaux’s alarming on-court collapse raises questions about player safety

Kevin Palmer
Alarming scenes in Miami after Arthur Cazaux collapsed in the heat
Alarming scenes in Miami after Arthur Cazaux collapsed in the heat

When is it too hot to play tennis?

It is a question that has been debated for many years and is often pushed to the top of the agenda when temperatures soar at the Australian Open each year.

The organisers of that tournament have a heat policy that sees the roof of the stadium courts closed if the heat becomes too dangerous, but those rules were not in place for Arthur Cazaux as he played his qualifying match at the Miami Open.

The alarming sight of Cazaux collapsing during his match against Harold Mayot will kick-start the debate about player welfare, with former tennis player Alize Cornet giving her view that the conditions may not be safe to play in the intense Miami heat.

This story attracted a concerned reaction on social media channels, with Mayot coming under fire for not appearing to Irish to help his opponent when he collapsed on the court.

That forced the young Frenchman to make a statement on his social media channels as he insisted he did everything he could to help Cazaux.

READ MORE: WATCH: Tennis star collapses during Miami Open qualifier as opponent admits ‘I didn’t see him fall’

“Stop starting a false controversy for nothing,” he wrote. “It had been several games since he didn’t feel well and he was starting to cramp.

“I didn’t see him fall and I thought he was lying down because he had a cramp.

“When I understood that it was serious I immediately followed go to him and I was very worried.

“I did my best to help. There is nothing but great friendship and complicity between us and always has been.

“You need to stop sending your hate all the time. I wish him a good recovery and the best.”

Cazaux received medical treatment on court and was taken away in a wheelchair to continue his recovery, with Mayot awarded the match as his opponent was unable to continue.

The health of players should also be put before entertainment or sporting results, but is hard to assess what conditions are reasonable to play in when you see the energy levels required to play top-level tennis.

Players have water breaks every two games and that is arguably more frequent than in many other sports, but the effort levels required to thrive in a singles match stretch players to the limit even on days when heat is not a factor.

An extreme heat policy that dictates when it is safe to play will be introduced at the 2018 Australian Open to better deal with baking conditions on court, with a ‘Heat Stress Scale’ used to guage when action needs to be taken.

The rules allow for a 10-minute break between the second and third sets in women’s singles matches when a four, on a scale of one to five, is recorded on the HSS prior to or during the first two sets of a match.

Men get a 10-minute breather after the third set if a four is reached and if the Heat Stress Scale goes to five, there is an option to suspend a match or delay its start.

Tennis Australia chief medical officer Carolyn Broderick said the scale took into account the effects of heat on the human body.

“The scale also accounts for the physiological variances between adults, wheelchair and junior athletes while also taking into account the four climate factors – air temperature, radiant heat or the strength of the sun, humidity and wind speed,” said Broderick.

After the disturbing scenes following Cazaux’s collapse, there are likely to be renewed calls for heat rules to be introduced in all tennis tournaments.