Tennis legend John McEnroe has made the controversial claim that Jannik Sinner benefitted from \u201cfavouritism\u201d from Australian Open organisers in his win against Elliot Spizzirri.<\/p>\n
Sinner<\/a>\u2018s bid to secure a third successive Australian Open<\/a> title looked in serious jeopardy midway through his 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 third round victory over world No 85 Spizzirri.<\/p>\n Temperatures soared as high as 39 degrees Celsius during the contest on Rod Laver Arena, and Sinner was suffering with fully body cramps and trailing 1-3 in the third set when the match was stopped due to the Australian Open\u2019s extreme heat policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Play was suspended for around 10 minutes to allow the roof to be closed, which helped the on-court temperature drop considerably.<\/p>\n Sinner\u2019s physical condition improved following the stoppage and he broke back immediately after play resumed before crucially taking the third set. The Italian then came back from 1-3 down again to win the fourth set.<\/p>\n McEnroe, who was commentating on the match for ESPN, made his feelings clear on play being stopped at a time when Sinner was in trouble.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone wants to see that in our sport. I get it, it looks like there\u2019s favouritism,\u201d the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if the shoe was on the other foot with Spizzirri, I\u2019d like to hope that they would pull the plug also\u2026 I don\u2019t know if they would have.\u201d<\/p>\n Jannik Sinner claims over heat rules disputed by Jamie Murray: \u2018I don\u2019t believe it\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Former British No 1 discusses Jannik Sinner \u2018conspiracy\u2019 theory after heat rule call<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking on Tennis Channel, 18-time major singles champion Martina Navratilova questioned the Australian Open\u2019s heat policy.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know in the middle of the match they\u2019re gonna close the roof, so when they know there\u2019s rain coming they\u2019ll close the roof pre-emptively, but they don\u2019t do it for heat. That doesn\u2019t make any sense,\u201d said the tennis icon.<\/p>\n \u201cThe timing was horrible for Spizzirri, but they should have just kept the roof closed from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n Sinner followed his victory against Spizzirri by downing fellow Italian and 22nd seed Luciano Darderi 6-1, 6-3, 7-6(2) in the fourth round on Monday. He will face Ben Shelton in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n The Australian Open\u2019s Heat Stress Scale \u2014 which measures playing conditions from 1 to 5 \u2014 dictates that play is suspended if the scale reaches 5 \u2014 which happened when Sinner was trailing 1-3 in the third set against Spizzirri.<\/p>\n Here is what the Australian Open website says about the scale:\u00a0\u201cThe Heat Stress Scale will be used to measure four climate factors \u2013 radiant heat (strength of the sun), air temperature in the shade, relative humidity and wind speed.<\/p>\n \u201cThese will be measured at five positions around the precinct, including on court in Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and Melbourne Arena. The scale starts at (1) for temperate playing conditions and escalates to (5) \u2013 suspension of play.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder the EHP, the Tournament Referee will allow a 10-minute break between the second and third sets in both women\u2019s and junior singles matches and a 15-minute break in wheelchair singles matches when a four (4.0) is recorded on the AO HSS prior to or during the first two sets of the match.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the men\u2019s singles, a 10-minute break will be allowed after the third set when a four (4.0) is recorded on the AO HSS prior to or during the first three sets of the match.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a five (5.0) is recorded on the AO HSS, the Tournament Referee can suspend the start of matches on outside courts and all matches in progress continuing until the end of an even number of games in that set or completion of the tie break before play will be suspended.<\/p>\n \u201cMatches on Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and Melbourne Arena will stop after an even number of games in that set or completion of the tie-break when the Tournament Referee can decide to close the roof for the remainder of the match and the following matches when the EHP is still in effect.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Lorenzo Musetti sends \u2018revenge\u2019 message to Novak Djokovic before Australian Open showdown<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post John McEnroe claims Jannik Sinner received \u2018favouritism\u2019 over Australian Open heat interruption<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tennis legend John McEnroe has made the controversial claim that Jannik Sinner benefitted from \u201cfavouritism\u201d from Australian Open organisers in his win against Elliot Spizzirri. Sinner\u2018s bid to secure a third successive Australian Open title looked in serious jeopardy midway through his 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 third round victory over world No 85 Spizzirri. Temperatures […]<\/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-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","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=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Australian Open News<\/h2>\n
What is the Australian Open\u2019s extreme heat policy?<\/h2>\n