Professional tennis is beginning to come to terms with the climate crisis. Beginning in 2026, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) will introduce a new rule designed to protect players’ health when temperatures become extreme, a condition that is less and less exceptional in summer tournaments and increasingly common in spring and autumn as well.
In recent years, the men’s circuit has been crisscrossed by increasingly noticeable episodes: matches played under relentless sun, sweltering humidity, sickness, cramps, and forced retirements. Heat is no longer an unforeseen, but a structural variable in the global tennis calendar. And continuing to pretend nothing was happening was becoming risky.
How the new “heat policy” works
The main innovation is the adoption of a heat stress measurement system that is not limited to air temperature, but also takes into account humidity, wind, and solar radiation. When this index exceeds certain thresholds, new protections are automatically triggered.
In best-of-three-set singles matches, if weather conditions reach critical levels, players will be given a cooling-off break between the second and third sets. Ten minutes designed to rehydrate, lower body temperature, change and receive medical attention, preventing physical exertion from continuing to push the body over the limit.
Instead, if the heat becomes potentially dangerous, the meeting may be suspended until conditions return to acceptable levels. A choice that finally puts health ahead of entertainment and television constraints.
A long overdue adjustment
The men’s circuit comes to this decision with some delay. Other areas of international tennis had already introduced similar rules for years, whilst the ATP continued to rely on case-by-case evaluations. The result was a patchwork of different decisions from tournament to tournament, with room for uncertainty and pressure on umpires.
Now the picture becomes clearer and more uniform. Not only for tennis players, but also for umpires, ball handlers and court personnel, all of whom are exposed to the same extreme weather conditions.
Climate enters professional sports
This new rule marks an important symbolic step: the explicit recognition that global warming is not an abstract issue, but directly affects the safety and organisation of sporting events. Tennis, with its long matches often played outdoors, is amongst the most exposed disciplines.
The ATP finally takes note that yesterday’s climate is no longer today’s. And that continuing to play as if nothing happened is simply no longer sustainable. On the court as well as off.
