{"id":434076,"date":"2026-01-24T08:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T08:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434076\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T08:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T08:40:08","slug":"jannik-sinner-def-eliot-spizzirri-in-third-round-thanks-to-heat-rule-stoppage-manipulating-serve-clock-change-the-rules-heat-stress-scale-latest-tennis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434076\/","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner def Eliot Spizzirri in third round thanks to heat rule stoppage, manipulating serve clock, change the rules, Heat Stress Scale, latest tennis news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jannik Sinner conceded he \u201cgot lucky\u201d as the Australian Open heat rules potentially saved him from a shocking third-round elimination on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Sinner has struggled in hot weather in the past and as the temperature hit nearly 40 degrees at Melbourne Park for his day session match with Eliot Spizzirri, the Italian\u2019s body began shutting down.<\/p>\n

UFC 325: Volkanovski vs Lopes 2 | SUN 1 FEB 1PM AEDT | For the first time in his storied career, UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will defend his championship in his home city of Sydney, in a rematch with Brazil\u2019s Diego Lopes. | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The two-time champion began to cramp up and could barely walk as he fell down a break at 1-3 after splitting the opening two sets.<\/p>\n

But just as Sinner was at his lowest point, with his coaches\u2019 box telling him they could take a lengthy break after the third set, the Australian Open Heat Stress Scale hit a full five out of five – meaning all play on outside courts had to stop, and the roofs on the show courts had to be closed.<\/p>\n

That gave Sinner almost 10 minutes of respite back inside and, when play resumed, he immediately broke back on route to a four-set victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sinner survives scare against Spizzirri | 01:35<\/p>\n

While the world No.2 had nothing to do with the decision of when the match should be stopped, he was inarguably helped by the timing, conceding on the court: \u201cI got lucky with the heat rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took my time and I started feeling better as the match went on. I\u2019m really, really happy to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started with the legs, then arms. It was all over. It\u2019s an area I need and want to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner (ITA) in action against Eliot Spizzirri (USA) during their third round match on Rod Laver Arena. Picture: Mark StewartSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n

Aussie doubles great Todd Woodbridge suggested on commentary if the stoppage \u201chad been maybe 15 minutes later, perhaps Jannik Sinner wouldn\u2019t have won this match\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his press conference Sinner explained he started to cramp in the third set but loosened up during the roof closure.<\/p>\n

Sinner survives scare against Spizzirri | 01:35<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t sleep the way I wanted to (last night), the quality of sleep was not perfect. Maybe it was this, maybe not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday the rule helped me. I had also the 10 minutes after the third set.\u201d<\/p>\n

He later added: \u201cIf he keeps playing the way he was playing, and my play keeps dropping a bit, maybe my tournament is over today. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vacherot wows Melbourne with wonder shot | 00:34<\/p>\n

Sinner was also able to manipulate the serve clock to his advantage as he tried to recover from his cramps.<\/p>\n

During the third and fourth sets he consistently stood at the line, ready to serve, but watched the clock count down until he legally had to begin his service motion – wasting as much time as possible to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not breaking any rules,\u201d Todd Woodbridge said, to which commentator Brenton Speed replied \u201cwell, let\u2019s change the rules\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speed pointed to Aussie rules football where if a player is seen to be manipulating the shot clock while kicking for goal, the umpire can call for play to resume immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner conceded he \u201cgot lucky\u201d as the Australian Open heat rules potentially saved him from a shocking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-434076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}