Men’s tennis body buckles: Games to be paused, stopped if heat hits break point

With this, ATP becomes the last tennis body to implement such a change - the WTA’s heat policy came into effect in 1992.

At the Australian Open in 2014, Canadian tennis player Frank Dancevic started to hallucinate on court. His attention needed to be on the fluffy yellow tennis ball. But as the temperature in Melbourne Park crossed 40°C, Dancevic suddenly saw the famed cartoon character Snoopy.

Novak Djokovic cools off during the Paris Olympics. (Getty Images)

Then he fainted.

Those dangerous playing conditions prompted the many governing bodies of tennis to work towards implementing heat policies. The four Grand Slams which are governed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and even the