NYT blames Federer’s U.S. Open loss on…’global warming’

From the “global warming is the universal boogeyman” department. h/t to Charles Rotter

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

By Kendra Pierre-Louis

Roger Federer, one of the world’s greatest tennis players, may have become an unwitting spokesman for the effects of climate change on Monday at the U.S. Open.

Federer, who is ranked No. 2, seemed to struggle all night in the heat and humidity at Arthur Ashe Stadium, losing in a fourth-round upset to John Millman, an Australian ranked 55th.

“It was hot,” Federer said. It “was just one of those nights where I guess I felt I couldn’t get air; there was no circulation at all.”

This was the first time Federer, who won the U.S. Open five consecutive times from 2004 to 2008, lost to a player outside the top 50 at the tournament.

While daytime temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) have been a persistent problem at this U.S. Open, forcing officials to offer players heat breaks and suspend junior matches, conditions Monday night were not much cooler. Temperatures hovered in the mid-80s, with the humidity for much of the match above 70 percent.


Full story here

It couldn’t be that he had a bad day, was off his game, wasn’t conditioned well for the temperature, or his age at 37 years old, or that Millman at 29 years old was just better that day….nooooo, it HAD to be global warming wot dun it.

The stupid, it burns.

 

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ron
September 4, 2018 7:04 pm

Wasn’t it just as hot for Milman? What am i missing?

rick
Reply to  ron
September 4, 2018 7:25 pm

Just another in the list of benefits of global warming – increased greening of the planet, bumper crop yields, and John Millman’s win over Roger Federer.

LdB
Reply to  ron
September 4, 2018 7:30 pm

To a climate believer only the best athletes get affected it’s like only iconic animals will be affected they just won’t be able to adapt. You just have to be true believer you can’t apply logic.

R. Shearer
Reply to  ron
September 4, 2018 8:12 pm

Not in the last 3 sets, you see he’s from Australia and it’s Spring there.

Cameron
Reply to  ron
September 4, 2018 8:32 pm

Millman is from Brisbane, average day time temp is mid 80s(F) for 3-5 months a year and humidity for those months is seldom less than 65%. He is conditioned to higher temps and humidity.
There are a lot of people already saying Grand Slam matches should not be played in these conditions (regardless of the cause of the conditions) as it can take the edge away from the better player if the lesser player is conditioned better. They don’t want lesser players outlasting their opponent instead of beating them. I watched a large portion of that match and there was definitely an element of this, but I am of the opinion the weather conditions are a part of all sports and you have to beat them as well as your opponent.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying global warming beat Federer, I am saying the conditions helped Millman.

Alan the Brit
Reply to  Cameron
September 5, 2018 12:00 am

I can’t see many sportsmen & sportswomen blaming the weather on a poor performance, the overwhelming majority of these sports people would simply say the better man/woman/team beat me/us on the day!

Cameron
Reply to  Alan the Brit
September 5, 2018 5:18 am

But Federer said little in his press conference along those lines, and when asked how Millman could beat Djokovic, he finished with “and hope for another hot day.” I know it may sound obvious coming from an Aussie, but I was really disappointed in Federer’s press conference, he really didn’t credit Millman enough for the effort he put into that game and the control he wrestled from Federer. All he kept saying was – it was hot… That may have been partially due to the questions asked too.

simple-touriste
Reply to  Cameron
September 16, 2018 12:03 pm

Doesn’t your brain dysfunction and freeze in high temp?

Automatism are OK, but when it comes to putting different things together, ordering stuff, elaborate thinking… it gets fuzzy.

It’s also a way to determine what requires high brain power: overheat and see when you freeze.

Mjw
Reply to  Cameron
September 5, 2018 3:44 am

And the fact that Federer is 37yo had nothing to do with it.

J Hope
Reply to  Mjw
September 6, 2018 10:27 am

Federer has beaten many players a lot younger than him. He was just having a bad day. Happens to a lot of sportspeople.

Bill_W_1984
Reply to  Cameron
September 5, 2018 7:33 am

Along with the age difference.

MarkW
Reply to  Cameron
September 5, 2018 8:06 am

Being prepared for the weather is part of getting ready for a match.
If the lower ranked player did a better job of getting ready, then he deserves the win.

Jim Whelan
Reply to  Cameron
September 5, 2018 12:30 pm

Conditioning is a major part of being the better player! You can’t claim to be a better player if you fade at the end of the game. Ever notice how the best players and teams often win with strong performances at the end of the matches or games That’s because the better players are in better shape. Anyone who says they don’t want conditioning or stamina to decide games or matches is perverting sports.

KAT
Reply to  ron
September 4, 2018 10:44 pm

CO2 only affects “seeded” players. It is a green thing!

MarkW
Reply to  KAT
September 5, 2018 8:07 am

I get it now.

Will
Reply to  KAT
September 5, 2018 9:42 am

Cool, KAT. Very cool.

Steve O
Reply to  ron
September 5, 2018 11:47 am

Because global warming doesn’t affect all areas in the same way, Federer might have experienced global warming while Millman did not.

September 4, 2018 7:05 pm

That’s the weather most of the time here in Texas in summer. Out of condition? or just a bit old?

D. J. Hawkins
Reply to  Tom Halla
September 5, 2018 11:29 am

You’re #2 in the world – until you aren’t.

4 Eyes
September 4, 2018 7:06 pm

I expect all genuine climate scientists to get on line and ridicule the idiot author who clearly has no claim to being a journalist. The editor in chief should give this cretin a few weeks off to contemplate his future

dodgy geezer
Reply to  4 Eyes
September 4, 2018 10:24 pm

If a genuine climate scientist went on line to point out that this was weather and not climate change he would be sacked. Which is why none of them will….

Alan the Brit
Reply to  4 Eyes
September 5, 2018 12:02 am

Don’t bank on it, the taxpayer funded cheque/check still must gon intothe account at the end ofthe month! 😉

DAV
September 4, 2018 7:07 pm

NYT blames Federer’s U.S. Open loss on…’global warming’

Here I thought it was the phase of the moon.

RACookPE1978
Editor
Reply to  DAV
September 4, 2018 7:42 pm

NYT blames Federer’s U.S. Open loss on…’global warming’

Funny. His opponent DID WIN.
So, I guess Federer’s US Open opponent played somewhere else that day. When he won the US Open.

Reply to  DAV
September 4, 2018 9:45 pm

Maybe it was his tampon that was bothering him? Or his feminine hygiene spray failed?
Or his menstrual cramps flared up?

Or maybe, just maybe, he just is getting older and the young bucks have finally caught him?

Who knows?

Gary Ashe
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
September 5, 2018 5:31 am

New balls please

commieBob
September 4, 2018 7:09 pm

I wish I could find the quote but IIRC, Bill Clinton once joked that Al Gore would blame the sunrise on global warming.

Louis Hooffstetter
Reply to  commieBob
September 4, 2018 7:59 pm

In her book “What Happened?”, Hillary listed 16 different reasons she lost to Trump.
Global warming makes 17.

September 4, 2018 7:11 pm

if the only tool you have is a hammer everything looks like nails and if your mind is fully occupied by climate holocaust every problem looks like climate holocaust.

incidentally, this is exactly how superstition driven confirmation bias works.

EXACTLY

please see the Nickerson citation in my superstition post.

https://tambonthongchai.com/2018/08/03/the-sorcery-killings-of-melanesia/

if you have an interest in the phenomenon of confirmation bias you might want to read the Nickerson paper. Very relevant to climate hype and climate fear particularly as it relates to extreme weather and event attribution science.

September 4, 2018 7:19 pm

John Millman comes from Brisbane and so he knows that hotter and wetter are better.

Greg Cavanagh
September 4, 2018 7:19 pm

Apparently the Australian was… acclimatised?

John Tillman
Reply to  Greg Cavanagh
September 4, 2018 7:57 pm

When it’s too hot or wet in Melbourne, the Australian Open moves indoors.

Not so the US.

The aged, injury-plagued Federer, wizard of Wimbledon, won the Oz Open in January, for his 20th Grand Slam singles victory, extending his world record. He won two last year, ending a four-year GS drought (2013-16).

A younger, fitter Federer would have survived the heat and humidity.

But today;s high of 90 F was far from a record for New York. The hottest September day in NYC was in 1953, when on the 2nd, it reached 102 F. Don’t have the humidity figures. So the problem was WX, not climate change.

John Tillman
Reply to  John Tillman
September 4, 2018 8:20 pm

PS: Federer is not yet quite as old as the oldest man ever to win a Grand Slam singles title. That would be Ken Rosewall, who won the 1972 Australian Open, aged 37 years and 63 days.

According to the infallible Wiki, Federer turned 37 on 8 August.

John Tillman
Reply to  John Tillman
September 5, 2018 12:15 am

I see that Arthur Ashe Stadium now has a retractable roof, so that the Melbourne solution to bad WX is an option in Flushing Meadows as well.

But on Tuesday it remained open. It could however have affected air circulation, heat and humidity.

Spalding Craft
Reply to  John Tillman
September 5, 2018 4:34 pm

Is Ashe not air conditioned? If not, why not?

I don’t get it.

brians356
September 4, 2018 7:54 pm

So by how many degrees was that date’s previous record broken? What, wait, it was cooler than the all-time record? Oh. Then “Global Cooling Delivered An Upset At The US Open.”

Reply to  brians356
September 5, 2018 12:18 am

brians356

I see what you did there.

Cunning, I like it. 🙂

ossqss
September 4, 2018 7:57 pm

Sooo, he won the first set, and lost the next 3 in OT, if you will, and it is a climate problem. Nothing to do with age and fitness. LOL

http://www.tennis.com/scores/players/944/john-millman/vs/376/roger-federer/2018-09-03/match/2877876/

ossqss
Reply to  ossqss
September 4, 2018 8:03 pm

Next up, Nadal losing the first set tonight 6-0 is due to Federer’s excess 40,000 PPM CO2 residue at courtside!

Tennis is climate now!

R. Shearer
Reply to  ossqss
September 4, 2018 8:17 pm

Got to “Love” it.

Rhee
Reply to  ossqss
September 5, 2018 8:53 am

Rafa managed to win his match in a final set tiebreak decision. Both he and Dominic looked like they had played the match underneath the sea. Perhaps Fed would have them move the tournament to low humidity southwestern states AZ or CA.

simple-touriste
Reply to  ossqss
September 16, 2018 12:23 pm

Does it mean that we can now read past temperature in sport results?

Gary Mount
September 4, 2018 8:13 pm

I played tennis in 40C (104F) with my father and brothers in Spokane, Washington around the year of Spokane’s Expo 74. We survived and are all still alive today.

R. Shearer
Reply to  Gary Mount
September 4, 2018 8:38 pm

I suppose you remember when the balls were a different color then.

John Tillman
Reply to  Gary Mount
September 4, 2018 8:55 pm

I recall it as the first “environmentally-themed” World’s Fair.

Gary Mount
Reply to  John Tillman
September 4, 2018 9:40 pm

I didn’t notice the environmental theme at the time when I was a kid. Looking through the official guide recently, I was very surprised to see so much reference to environmental themes. No climate change or global warming mentions back then.
I could scan the guide and make it available if anyone is interested, let me know in the comments.

John Tillman
Reply to  Gary Mount
September 5, 2018 12:12 am

That was when global cooling was all the rage. Also blamed upon humans, with more justification than global warming now, since real pollution from industrialization did block sunlight in the developed world. Cleaned up air since the ’70s is now however being undone by China and India.

Reply to  Gary Mount
September 5, 2018 12:20 am

garymount

It was global cooling back then.

Craig
September 4, 2018 8:17 pm

Who needs personal responsibility when you have global warming? But that’s the real point of all this, isn’t it.

Jim Clarke
September 4, 2018 8:42 pm

There appears to be a notion among the stupid, that if you weave multiple layers of stupidity together in a complex, interconnected, non-linear fashion, that you can appear to be intelligent. This, of course, is a very stupid notion!

September 4, 2018 8:55 pm

Clearly Millman’s end of the court was in a cooler part of the Globe.

Wally
September 4, 2018 9:27 pm

I guess those conditions never happened before.

100% Of US Warming Is Due To NOAA Data Tampering
https://realclimatescience.com/100-of-us-warming-is-due-to-noaa-data-tampering/

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Wally
September 5, 2018 12:53 am

Ah c’mon NOAA measured a global average in 1850. Be serial!

lee
September 4, 2018 9:51 pm

Federer -“Federer believes the decision to build a roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium contributed to his problems.

The roof was open Monday, but the space above the cavernous arena has been reduced by the wings which help support the structure.

“I do believe since the roof is on that there is no air circulation in the stadium. I think just that makes it a totally different US Open,” said the world number two.”

https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/tennis/federer-i-struggled-to-breathe-in-shock-us-open-loss/ar-BBMQUyr?li=AAgfYrC&ocid=ACERDHP15

Tom in Florida
Reply to  lee
September 5, 2018 10:23 am

His tennis was certainly number two on that day.

GregK
September 4, 2018 10:33 pm

Perhaps shift the US Open to Svarlbad or Macquarie Island for those tennis players who don’t like it hot, unlike some….[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/some_like_it_hot/]

September 4, 2018 10:41 pm

Of course, it has nothing to do with a tennis player getting older, and older, and older.
Then, not sleeping, another age related complaint; takes additional toll on the physical body.

“Roger Federer” – age 37.
“John Millman” – age 29.

Enough failure to sleep at night and Billie Jean King has a chance.

September 4, 2018 11:37 pm

Other than the fact that Federar at 37 is well past the average tennis players age, it is a very physical game, New York with all of its buildings generates a lot of heat.

He will be back at his usual world rate next match.

MJE

Alan the Brit
September 4, 2018 11:56 pm

As you’ve highlighted, Federer may be pretty fit fella at 37, but younger fit 29 year old beat him, Federer couldn’t cope with the heat & humidity, & simply wasn’t the best player on court that day, well done Millman!

Herbert
September 5, 2018 12:18 am

This is a red rag to an Old Bull, me, as an Australian Tennis Fan living in Brisbane.
Rod Laver defeated Tony Roche in the 1969 Australian Open Semi-final at Milton, Brisbane, 7-5,22-20, 9-11,1-6, 6-3 in a match lasting over 4 hours in 105 degrees F.heat.
It was the longest match-90 games- Laver ever played, and is regarded as being among the greatest tennis matches ever.
Both players put cabbage leaves in their hats to keep cool .Laver took salt pills and glucose but ended up groggy.They had wet towels in the ice box to little effect.
Interestingly, the Swiss Master, Roger Federer knows of this saga as a great fan of Laver.
I recall little mention of global warming in Brisbane in 1969 when world temperatures were cooling (1940-1976).

John Tillman
Reply to  Herbert
September 5, 2018 12:36 am

At the 1969 Oz Open, Rod Laver was 30. Tony Roche was 23.

KAT
Reply to  Herbert
September 5, 2018 4:47 am

“….cabbage leaves in their hats to keep cool”
It was so hot that the birds were flying backwards to keep their ar$es cool!!

Reply to  Herbert
September 5, 2018 6:58 am

Thanks for the bit of history, Herbert. Of course it wasn’t as hot, but to add, Isner had the 72-70 final set at Wimbledon. I think that wrecked his body for the entire season that year….

Urederra
September 5, 2018 1:13 am

Since this warming comes after the 2000-2016 (or so) pause, should we call this new period the global tie break?

Mjw
September 5, 2018 3:42 am

Global Warming! and I thought it was the bloke at the other end of the court.

Moderately Cross of East Anglia
September 5, 2018 4:00 am

It is clearly unsatisfactory that Tennis isn’t played on the Antarctic ice which would give ethnic minorities like the Inuit a level playing field to win instead of being oppressed by sweaty Europeans responsible for CO2 raising the temperature of the planet in the first place and imposing their deeply racist agenda to deny native peoples lucrative rewards for meaningless if entertaining activities.

Of course their might be an issue about white court lines and balls.

Mike Macray
Reply to  Moderately Cross of East Anglia
September 5, 2018 6:48 am

Moderately Cross..
“…It is clearly unsatisfactory that Tennis isn’t played on the Antarctic ice which would give ethnic minorities like the Inuit a level playing field..”
I once played a tournament in an armoury on wood.. I wouldn’t recommend trying to play on polished ice!
cheers

Reply to  Moderately Cross of East Anglia
September 5, 2018 6:55 am

Use carbon-black for the lines. Oh wait, not CARBON….

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