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U.S. OPENSeptember 5, 2014David BrewerNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. I know obviously sort of one of a kind situation, at least for us here at the US Open. I'm sure there are several questions regarding what occurred on the court and what the procedure was, timeline, et cetera. We have asked our US Open tournament director, David Brewer, and he's here to answer these questions. David? We're going to jump right into questions. Q. Why don't you give us a timeline of when you got down on the court and what you were thinking? Were you looking at your watch? I mean, what was the scenario? The game plan you were following? Didn't really look like there was much of a game plan. DAVID BREWER: Why don't we walk it through what actually happened on the court. Obviously she was in distress at some point and could not communicate to the chair umpire that she was in distress. That's when you saw the chair umpire leave the chair and go to the player. What happens next is the umpire decides, the tournament staff, okay, the player is in distress and needs to see a trainer. That's when you saw the umpire wave the trainer onto the court. The trainer began her evaluation. It's important we understand the things between evaluation and treatment. We'll get to that in just a moment. Okay, so the player, Peng, is in distress. The player is really not able to communicate clearly enough with the chair umpire, so the chair umpire took it upon herself to leave the chair and go to the player, which is not unusual, quite frankly. The chair umpire determines that the player needs to have a trainer come and evaluate the medical condition of the player. You saw the trainer come onto the court. The trainer also asked that the doctor be communicated with and asked that she come on court as well in order to begin the evaluation process. Again, it's important we understand the importance between evaluation and treatment. We will get to that in just a moment. The evaluation process began with the trainer and with the doctor on court. They determined they'd like to continue evaluation but do it off the court for privacy measures. I will come back to this one in just a moment, also. They did that. They continued the evaluation off court. At the same time, the referee moves to the area where they're doing the off-court evaluation. Once the doctor and trainer determine that, okay, they understand what the situation is and they can begin treatment, at that point they notified the referee, who starts his clock, and that is when the three-minute treatment timing goes into effect. What has been relayed to me has been that at that point, at the end of three minutes, the referee says, Time. The doctor, trainer, and player all together determine that she would like to continue. It was determined that it would not be physically harmful for her to go back out and try to play tennis again. That's when you saw her come back onto the court. So in real quick strokes, that is what happened in the sequence. Q. Most importantly, how is she now? DAVID BREWER: She's doing well. She's already left the medical treatment facility which we have here in the building. She's back in the locker room. As I understand it, she's already taken a shower. She's recovering quite nicely. Q. Can you just explain exactly what it is that took her off the court, what her problem was? DAVID BREWER: Heat illness. Q. Can you explain the difference between determining -- I mean, there are specific rules on cramping. DAVID BREWER: Yes. Q. That involved forfeiting points in order to be treated. DAVID BREWER: Correct. Q. So if you have a heat illness exhibiting itself in cramping, how do you make that determination in a way that doesn't disadvantage the player, like Wozniacki? DAVID BREWER: And the ruling was that she did have heat illness. When they evaluated and they treated her, they treated her for heat illness. At the end of that three minutes it was determined she would like to go back and play again. I should add parenthetically that it was determined by both the doctor and the trainer that, you know, she's a well-conditioned professional athlete. She wanted to go compete. We understand that she would really not do any more harm to herself. That's how she was, why she was allowed to go back on the court. More specific to your question, she never received treatment for cramping. Then your further question leads as far as default points. We never got there, so better I don't speculate on that. Q. But was she exhibiting cramps? Is that what was happening? DAVID BREWER: I really don't know. I just know she had heat illness. That was what the doctors called what she was exhibiting. Q. So one supposes that heat illness can disappear or be taken care of in just a three-minute evaluation and treatment, or... Heat illness, it would be a fairly lengthy kind of a process for her to recover. DAVID BREWER: Yeah. Look, I think it's safe to say she was treated for heat illness. She was allowed to go back on the court. That's what we all saw. She ultimately could not continue. Q. She was clutching the back of her shoulder. Was that related to heat illness, that whole episode? DAVID BREWER: I really don't know. I don't know about that piece. Q. So she decided to retire? DAVID BREWER: She did. Yes, she made that -- yeah, she made that decision after she came back and played I think three additional points, if I'm not mistaken. Q. Do you think with the benefit of hindsight it would have been better for her not to come back on? It was a pretty horrible thing to watch. No one really knew what was going on. DAVID BREWER: It's a great question. But, again, I think I come back to my feeling that she's a highly trained professional athlete. She knows her body and her condition better than anybody. If she wants to go compete, that's why she's here. If there were a situation where she could have harmed herself, I'm very confident that our medical staff would have said, Sorry, you cannot go back out there again. Q. Was the heat rule in effect? Do you have any sense what the temperatures were? DAVID BREWER: The heat rule was in effect, yes. Q. Do you have a reading of the on-court temperature? DAVID BREWER: It was above the threshold before the match started, so that's why the heat rule was in effect. Happy to get you the documentation on what the rule is. It's a combination of heat and humidity. Q. The chair umpire said at the end of the match that she has to retire, not that she had voluntarily retired. It was that she will have to retire or something. I guess I'm looking for the distinction on whether or not she voluntarily retired from the court or if the umpire retired her? DAVID BREWER: No, the player voluntarily retired. Q. Some of the commentators were pretty critical of what was going on. Have you heard some of the criticism? What were your reactions? DAVID BREWER: I have not heard them yet. Q. At what point do you step in and save the player from herself? How bad would it have to have gotten for you to step in? DAVID BREWER: Great question. Again, that's what the medical staff is here for. I do think it's also important -- I think most of you guys know, but let me just reiterate the fact that the medical rules that we're talking about right now and the processes and procedures are followed year round across professional tennis both at ATP and WTA Tour events as well as all Grand Slams. We, over the many, many years here of professional tennis, you know, we've constantly been looking for that balance between, Let's help the player protect themselves and allow them to compete as long and hard as they can. The ultimate answer to your question would be: If our medical staff felt the player would endanger herself by returning to the court, they would not have allowed her to return. And they have the right to do that. Q. Heat illness is kind of a vague thing. Are you talking about heat stroke? I don't know what heat illness means. DAVID BREWER: I can tell you that the doctor determined that player had heat illness. Beyond that, I wouldn't begin to speculate on heat stroke. I wouldn't have any idea. Q. Heat stroke never came up? DAVID BREWER: The player was evaluated as having heat illness. Q. The reason that the umpire went down to the player, to Peng. Normally that wouldn't happen. Why did the umpire actually go to the player? Solely because to know what was going on? DAVID BREWER: The umpire was not able to communicate with the player to hear, Okay, do you want a trainer is basically what it amounted to. As you have seen many, many times before, if a player begins to have distress, whatever the physical incapacity might happen to be, more times than not they are able to communicate the chair umpire and say, I need a trainer right now or I will need a trainer at a changeover, whatever the case may be. She went down quickly and was far enough away from the umpire. The chair umpire simply could not hear or understand if she was calling for a trainer or not. That's why she went to the player. Q. Do you think that 10 minutes is a fair amount of time for Wozniacki to be facing break point at a semifinal? DAVID BREWER: Look, that's a valid question. Again, I think that kind of comes back to our balance that we're always trying to strike between competitive fairness and making sure we are watching out for the health of the athletes at the same time. Q. Do you think there is anything else you could do to cool down these players at all on the changeovers or anything else? DAVID BREWER: Well, you know, Flip, they have the ice towels. They have got any number of things on any changeover that they have at their disposal. Q. Is there a limit to how long it can take to evaluate? DAVID BREWER: The term "reasonable period of time" is what's in the rule book. Again, it's intended to allow a medical specialist enough time to evaluate a professional athlete and determine, okay, are they in danger or not? Q. So there is no set, fixed, set time? DAVID BREWER: There is no fixed, set time. That's correct. Q. What were her symptoms, then, of heat illness? DAVID BREWER: I don't have the exact listing, so I don't know. I just asked the doctor, and the doctor said, She had heat illness. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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