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Tennis Player Suffers Heatstroke

Paula Badosa of Team Spain is helped away from the court in a wheelchair after having to retire from her Women’s Singles Quarterfinal match against Marketa Vondrousova of Team Czech Republic on day five of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Tennis Park on July 28, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
Paula Badosa of Team Spain is helped away from the court in a wheelchair after having to retire from her Women’s Singles Quarterfinal match against Marketa Vondrousova of Team Czech Republic on day five of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Tennis Park on July 28, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: David Ramos (Getty Images)

By any normal measures, it’s been way too hot to play tennis in Tokyo, and yet the matches have gone on. For players, they have been a disaster. Last week, Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa suffered heatstroke, which forced her to leave the court in a wheelchair, forfeiting her women’s singles quarterfinal match against the Czech Republic’s Marketa Vondrousova.

Earlier the same day, Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev told an umpire he feared for his life because of the heat. Officials made the call to move tennis matches’ start time to 3 p.m. instead of 11 a.m. to avoid the hottest weather. But in Tokyo—especially amid the climate crisis—weather later in the afternoon is still brutally hot.

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