Eliot Spizziri believes that the controversial implementation of the heat rule during his Australian Open match against Jannik Sinner was \u2018funny timing\u2019, but that it adhered to the rules.<\/p>\n
The American found himself possessing a surprising scoring advantage during his third-round match against the world No 2, leading 3-1 in the third set after splitting the first two sets.<\/p>\n
Even more importantly, Sinner<\/a> was being severely limited by cramp which had worked its way up from his calf to the rest of his body.<\/p>\n The two-time defending champion\u2019s physical state was diminished due to the 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) temperature on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n As a result, the tournament\u2019s \u2018heat rule\u2019 was put into effect after reaching the maximum level of five.<\/p>\n That scale is influenced by four key factors \u2013 strength of the sun, air temperature in the shade, relative humidity and wind speed \u2013 which, when peaked, lead to play being suspended.<\/p>\n For those on the show courts, play is only suspended for as long as it takes for the roof to be closed, with air conditioning providing additional comfort to both players.<\/p>\n For the clash between Sinner and Spizzirri, the disruption led to a 10-minute stoppage.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I don\u2019t know if he got saved by it,\u201d remarked the American.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I smiled a little bit when the heat rule went into effect, just because it was kind of funny timing as I went up 3-1.<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the same time, you know, the game at 2-1 in the third set was when the heat, when it hit, I think it\u2019s 5.0, which means that the heat rule is in effect.<\/p>\n \u201cSo whenever that game was over, whether I broke or whether he held, we were going to close the roof.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just funny that right when I broke and he was wobbling, that it happened to happen that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic \u2018very lucky\u2019 to escape Australian Open disqualification for \u2018violent gesture\u2019 \u2013 tennis great<\/a><\/p>\n Jannik Sinner was \u2018absolutely cooked\u2019 and \u2018going home\u2019 without Australian Open heat interruption<\/a><\/p>\n Sinner recovered well from the suspension of play, breaking back straight away to win four of the final five games of the set to claim it 6-4.<\/p>\n Spizzirri was unable to recapture the sensational form which he had produced in the first half of the match, although he was aided by the cramps somewhat returning to the Italian in the fourth set.<\/p>\n The American broke for 3-1, but was broken back immediately after the world No 2 struck down multiple kamikaze winners, before taking the final set 6-4.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the rules of the game, and, you know, you got to live with it,\u201d added Spizzirri.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I had won that third set, we were going to have a ten-minute break anyways because of how hot it was, even if the roof didn\u2019t close. So who knows?<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen him do this before where there\u2019s an extended break, and he gathers himself and comes out and figures it out.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he did it against maybe Holger Rune one time, if I\u2019m not mistaken, at this tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I wouldn\u2019t say, like, he got saved by it.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s too good of a player to say that, but at the same time, you know, it was, you know, challenging timing, and that\u2019s just the nature of the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could say that. I don\u2019t know (smiling). You could say it\u2019s lucky, but he\u2019s also very experienced and handled it, you know, pretty well, I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n As Spizzirri mentioned, cramps are not novel to Sinner, having struggled against Rune in a fourth-round clash at last year\u2019s edition of the Melbourne tournament.<\/p>\n Additionally, the Italian was forced to retire against Tallon Griekspoor in the third set of the Beijing Open last season \u2013 again, due to cramps.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, Sinner will now have 48 hours of rest before facing compatriot Luciano Darderi, who triumphed over No 15 seed Karen Khachanov.<\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n The post Jannik Sinner\u2019s opponent reacts to controversial heat rule implementation \u2013 \u2018Funny timing\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eliot Spizziri believes that the controversial implementation of the heat rule during his Australian Open match against Jannik Sinner was \u2018funny timing\u2019, but that it adhered to the rules. The American found himself possessing a surprising scoring advantage during his third-round match against the world No 2, leading 3-1 in the third set after splitting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Australian Open News<\/h2>\n