New York Times blames global warming, Brisbane for Roger Federer’s loss

New York Times blames global warming, Brisbane for Roger Federer’s loss


Roger Federer and John Millman during their US Open meeting. Picture: Mega/AFP

• DEBBIE SCHIPP
  DIGITAL JOURNALIST
  @debbieschipp
  
• 3:52PM SEPTEMBER 5, 2018
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Even Australia’s new favourite tennis journeyman John Millman agreed him drop-kicking Roger Federer out of the US Open was pretty much a miracle.
Federer, always all class, was punch-drunk after the loss, admitting he was reeling from Millman’s relentless energy and the New York humidity and was “just happy it was over”.
“It was very hot tonight … I felt I couldn’t get air,” he said.
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“For some reason I just struggled … it’s uncomfortable. Clearly just keep on sweating more and more and more and more as the match goes on. You lose energy as it goes by.”
He went on to heap praise on Millman.
“John was able to deal with it better,” he said.
“He maybe comes from one of the most humid places on earth, Brisbane. I knew I was in for a tough one. Maybe when you feel like that, as well, you start missing chances, and I had those. ”
In the wake of the biggest upset of years, many were searching for answers on how an upstart Aussie managed to topple the 20-time grand slam singles champion.
And now they had it. Federer went on to laud the Queenslander’s intensity, backhand and court savvy, but by then New York wasn’t listening.
There it was. A ready-made, omnipresent, all-powerful and hard to argue with reason for why a minnow had felled a giant: Global warming.
At 1.45am in New York after the night match, humidity was still more than 80 per cent.
The New York Times ran with it: “Roger Federer Is Tough To Beat. Global Warming Might Have Pulled an Upset”, wrote Kendra Pierre-Lewis in an article filed under the masthead’s online “climate” section.
Ms Pierre-Lewis said Federer had become “an unwitting spokesman for the effects of climate change” with his comments about struggling in the heat and humidity, underlining “a growing problem: increasing night-time temperatures”.
Lord knows how Fed won those six Australian Open titles. In Melbourne. In January.
Ms Pierre-Lewis then kindly explained how humidity at high temperatures “stymies a cooling mechanism for the body, sweating”.
“When the air is too humid, the sweat doesn’t evaporate; it drips. “It provides no cooling capacity for the body,” Dr Lacy Alexander told her.

NYT Climate@nytclimate


“At 10:51 p.m. the heat index was 95 — that’s pretty incredible. That’s a hot heat index in the middle of the summer, in the middle of the day, for New York.” https://nyti.ms/2LXGQXB
8:29 AM - Sep 5, 2018

Roger Federer Is Tough to Beat. Global Warming Might Have Pulled an Upset.

Federer struggled in the nighttime heat and humidity, conditions that were in keeping with the changing climate. “It was hot,” he said.
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Dr Lacy Alexander did not elaborate on whether Millman had concealed a fan under his shirt at the other end of the court.
Ms Pierre-Lewis did concede Millman had been out there in the same conditions for just as long as Federer, she ventured “Millman is from Brisbane, Australia, which is cooler but steamier than Federer’s off-season training base in Dubai”.

Federer feels the heat during his match against Millman. “You have soaking-wet pants, soaking-wet everything,” he said after the loss. Picture: ZUMAPRESS.com
The Wall Street Journal was also keen on the climate change theory, running with the line “In US Open Upset, Roger Federer Couldn’t Get Air”.
“The big problem for Federer in the match: The weather was warm and humid, and since the retractable roof has been put on Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2016, the air doesn’t circulate nearly as much.”
Ah, so it was global warming. And the roof.
And, the WSJ reported, the fact that “Millman, ranked No. 55 in the world with a career losing record, grew up in the incredibly humid Brisbane and is not fazed by the heat.”
So there you go. It was a global warming, stadium roof, Brisbane kind of thing.
And the fact Federer’s serve deserted him (he made just 49 per cent of his first serves for the match and coughed up 10 double-faults), and made more unforced errors (77, to Millman’s 28) in one match than Nick Kyrgios has had tanking accusations.
“I felt a little bit guilty today because he didn’t have his best day, and that’s for sure,” Millman said after the match.
“I felt like a deer in the headlights to begin with, to be honest. Today he was not at his best but I’ll take it.”
So there you have it.
On Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday night, deer in the headlights proved as a species they are more resistant to global warming than a Swiss tennis maestro having an off day.
As Millman eyes his next challenge against Novak Djokovic, Federer is planning to take a break.
Possibly not in Brisbane.

Brisbane boy John Millman turns up the heat on Federer. Picture: Julian Finney/Getty

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sp...ign=editorial&utm_content=TodaySHeadlines