Great Britain - Wimbledon - Borges, Nuno vs Khachanov, Karen

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Ice towels and thermal stress techniques: how players deal with heat at Wimbledon

Short-term measures are useful but ‘gold standard’ means being exposed to hot weather 10-15 times before an event “It was a bit of a shock to the system,” according to Cameron Norrie. For the German player Eva Lys, the conditions were “really, really tough”. Jessica Pegula, meanwhile, said the weather was “just like Florida”. The hottest-ever start to a Wimbledon fortnight has left a mark on players and spectators alike, and raised questions about how the tournament adjusts to a rapidly warming future. The numerous measures put in place to deal with the heat of the past week were not hard to spot at SW19. The most obvious was the mass deployment of ice towels, rolled out to every court and wrapped around the shoulders of players at changeovers to aid the process of cooling. Described by Wimbledon’s official channels as a “critical welfare operation”, what had previously been an item available only on request was scaled up so that, on day one alone, 145 towels were stuffed with ice cubes, stored in plastic bags for hygiene and distributed around the courts. Continue reading...

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Sports quiz of the week: Wimbledon, Euro 2025, Club World Cup and Lions

Have you been watching the football, cycling, cricket, tennis, rugby union, basketball and Formula One? Continue reading...

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