Britain’s Johanna Konta rallied Wednesday from a scary heat-stroke incident late in the second set that wound up working for her, prompting her angry opponent to question the timeout rules in place.
The 13th-seeded Konta, after collapsing on the baseline and needing medical treatment that all but halted play for more than 20 minutes, recovered to pound Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova in a third-set whitewash at the U.S. Open. Konta’s 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 victory called into question the fairness of how long a player should be permitted to sit before being forced to forfeit.
Facing set point at 6-5, Konta fell to the court and was treated at the baseline by medics frantically taking her blood pressure. At one juncture she got up and fell back down. When she finally got to the sidelines to her chair, she was iced down. Konta said afterward she was having trouble breathing, was “hyperventilating” and her “heart rate spiked.”
Classified as a medical timeout for “dizziness,’’ it took 15 minutes before the next ball was hit – Konta hitting a double fault to end the set. Konta then called for a bathroom break and left the court for seven minutes, essentially to change her clothes. All the inaction cost Pironkova, who called the episode “a controversial moment.’’ She tried to stay loose by hitting serves.
Pironkova was most upset not at the medical timeout but the bathroom break she deemed as stretching the rules.
“What was frustrating for me was what happened after that — the toilet break,’’ Pironkova said. “I think the match was stopped for too long. It was unfortunate time. I had momentum going.
“I wish I could say everyone uses the [bathroom] timeout accordingly,’’ Pironkova added. “I don’t think they should be used that way. … Everything was by the rules, but I’m not happy about those rules.’’
Konta didn’t seem too proud in victory.
“I’m feeling a little embarrassed, but I’m doing everything I can to recover well and try to get myself into a state to be ready to compete again,” Konta said.