Heat stress incident prevalence and tennis matchplay performance at the Australian Open

Abstract

© 2017 Sports Medicine Australia Objectives: To examine the association of wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) with the occurrence of heat-related incidents and changes in behavioural and matchplay characteristics in men's Grand Slam tennis. Design: On-court calls for trainers, doctors, cooling devices and water, post-match medical consults and matchplay characteristic data were collected from 360 Australian Open matches (first 4 rounds 2014–2016). Methods: Data were referenced against estimated WBGT and categorised into standard zones. Generalised linear models assessed the association of WBGT zone on heat-related medical incidences and matchplay variables. Results: On-court calls for doctor (47% increase per zone, p = 0.001), heat-related events (41%, p = 0.019), cooling devices (53%, p 32 °C and >28 °C, significant increases in heat-related calls (p = 0.019) and calls for cooling devices (p 32 °C) and cooling device callouts (>28 °C). However, few matchplay characteristics were noticeably affected, with only reduced net approaches and increased aces evident in higher estimated WBGT environments