Jack Draper hit out at the brutal conditions he faced during his second-round defeat at the Olympics.
As temperatures in Paris hit the mid-30s, the Brit explained that the players were forced to drink hot water and spent the changeovers filling up their bottles instead of resting.
Draper blew a one-set lead to lose to No. 7 seed Taylor Fritz 6-7(3) 6-3 6-2. The British No. 1 battled in the searing heat for two hours and 13 minutes but he ultimately crashed out in the second round on his Olympic debut. He was clearly feeling it on the court, covering his face with ice packs during changeovers.
But Draper couldn’t get the rest he needed because of the lack of cold water available to the players. Although he knew he needed to get better at playing in hot weather, he called out organisers, claiming it wasn’t “good enough”. The 22-year-old said: “I mean it was tough conditions, there’s no doubt about it, I need to play more in this sort of heat and obviously going to America I’ll get more used to that.”
Draper was dripping with sweat after coming off the court and droplets from his soaked hair fell on his face as he spoke. “It was really hot out there today like we were both trying our best to put on some good tennis. I felt like there was times when it was ups and downs and each of us struggling,” he continued.
“I mean, look, a part of it is physicality but I just think it’s – I said to the referee, it’s pretty poor that the players have to drink hot water when we’re playing in those conditions. We did have ice towels and stuff but usually it’s important that we have good fridges to keep our water cool but it’s so tough to recover when you’re just not replenishing properly and all those sorts of things. There’s no escape from the heat. Even at the change of ends, there’s no escape from it. So it was difficult.”
Draper also detailed the water situation, as he was forced to spend the changeovers standing up to get himself a drink instead of taking a well-deserved break. “You can refill [the bottles] but when we’re at the change of ends, we’re playing such tough points and we’re running around in the heat and we’re trying our best and at the change of ends, I ended up not sitting down anymore because I was refilling the drinks. Like, I want to sit down,” he explained.
“If we could put it in a fridge. Like it’s tough having to keep refilling the bottles ourselves. At all other tournaments you can maybe get the water out the fridge, US Open there’s maybe a fridge with ice, there’s a cooler or something. It felt like, on the court especially, I don’t know if it’s normal that court doesn’t have any shelter so even when the umbrella is on, the legs are in the sun. Like, everything. It just felt like there was no escape from it and I think a lot of it is obviously physicality and getting used to it but I just think it’s pretty poor that they put the players through that on court.”
By the end of the match, the world No. 27 was spending most of his time at a plastic box behind his bench. He added: “It’s a plastic box with like a water fountain in there. This is what I’m saying, you can get water from there and it’s a bit cooler because it’s in the box but we shouldn’t have to fill our water up every change of ends.
“We need to sit down. It’s not good enough that you’ve got people out in the crowd, they must be thinking, what’s going on? Because they’re struggling just watching it sitting down let alone playing and when you’ve got to then stand up in between the change of ends to fill up your water, I just don’t think it’s good enough.”
But Draper has also seen the silver lining after playing through the brutal temperatures. The Brit believes the match will help him adjust for the upcoming North American hard-court swing. “I mean you’ve got to play in it. This match is probably good for me today to then hopefully be better in America,” he said.
“It’s kind of just a shock to the system when you’re all of a sudden put in extreme heat and I think especially people don’t see sometimes like a lot of players don’t sweat too much and so they don’t struggle as mich. Whereas the people who are losing so much water and stuff, it’s so tough to replenish and we struggle a lot more. So all of that stuff around the drinks and the cooling and all that sort of stuff is so important.”
