'This is not sustainable': Tennis faces a crisis as questions raised about gruelling global calendar

The tennis world is raising serious concerns after British player Emma Raducanu was forced to retire from her first-round match at the 2025 Wuhan Open due to heat illness earlier this week. The 22-year-old looked visibly uncomfortable in the tough weather conditions before stopping her match against American Ann Li, who was leading 6-1, 4-1 at the time.

Raducanu’s exit is the latest to join a long list of players who have struggled with the heat in China. Novak Djokovic, Holger Rune, and Jannik Sinner have also been seen getting impacted over the past week. Sinner was forced to retire from his Shanghai Masters match due to cramp caused by the sweltering heat, while Djokovic vomited on court multiple times and later called the conditions “brutal.”

Djokovic is scheduled to play the quarterfinal match of the Shanghai Masters against Zizou Bergs on Thursday, October 9. It will be interesting to see how he handles the conditions today after struggling in previous rounds against Jaume Munar and Yannick Hanfmann.

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Temperatures in Shanghai and Wuhan are around 30 degrees Celsius, and humidity is close to 80 percent. This has made playing extremely difficult, especially for players who reside outside of Asia. Tomas Machac, Casper Ruud, David Goffin, and Wu Yibing are among the names who have withdrawn from matches recently.

Tennis at ‘breaking point’

Veteran commentator Jonathan Overend, speaking after Raducanu’s retirement, said the current situation is a “major problem” for the sport. “This is a grind and it is brutal out in Asia at the moment with the temperatures and humidity and it can strike anybody at any time. We have seen better players than Emma Raducanu get struck down by heat illness over the last couple of weeks. It’s a major talking point at the moment and a major problem for the sport moving forward,” he said.

But the weather is not the only concern. Players have also been complaining about a packed schedule this year. Stars like Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek, and Coco Gauff have all spoken about the lack of rest and recovery time between tournaments. Their last major event was the 2025 US Open last month, and since then, they have played at least two or three other tournaments.

Overend believes the sport is reaching a “breaking point.” “In the last 24 hours we have seen Taylor Fritz say I have hit a wall, I need to take a time out. We have seen Daria Kasatkina say I am mentally shot this season, I am ending my season now, I can’t do it anymore,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that tennis this week, it feels is at breaking point. We have Sinner limping around with cramp, Medvedev at the previous tournament as well, so many withdrawals in Shanghai. What are we doing as a sport? This is not sustainable,” Overend added.