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It’s a brutally hot day at the US Open on Wednesday – luckily, that should end by Thursday.

But it brings back memories of some absolutely suffocating moments at the tournament, which typically occur during qualifying and the first week before the weather seems to turn.

In this installment, we go back to a second-round qualifying match in 2021 between Oscar Otte of Germany and Constant Lestienne of France.

That was a heavy-duty COVID year, and the qualifying was closed to the public (and qualifying week wasn’t the circus it is now, just a few years later).

So everything was pretty low key. Except the temperatures.

It was well into the 30s Celsius, plus the humidex factor pushing it closer to 40 – and even hotter on a hard cement surface.

Otte, the No. 23 seed, had barely squeaked by Renzo Olivo of Argentine 6-7 (3), 6-0, 7-6 (4) in the first round, while Lestienne, unseeded, eliminated Andrea Pellegino 7-5, 4-6, 6-0.

So, not easy matches.

They convened on a back court and, at first, everything seemed fairly okay given the conditions.

But by the time they got to the third set – the tiebreak in the third set – things got messy.

Very messy. For both.

There wasn’t … simultaneous vomiting or anything like that. They took turns.

Here’s what it looked like.

But it’s hard to even fathom having to continue on with a match, standing at the baseline while the poor ballkids have to clean up after you just yards away.

Never mind having to upchuck in front of … people. Luckily that year there it was mostly friends and family.

Play couldn’t really continue until that happened.

Incredibly, Otte went on to win it – 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6) in 2 1/2 hours to move to the final round.

He was ecstatic (if puky, again).

So was Lestienne (not ecstatic, but puky)

Even more impressive was the next day, when Otte survived Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the main draw.

At 28, after 10 years as a pro, he had qualified for his first US Open – and his third consecutive Grand Slam tournament.

Not only that, even after that draining week, Otte went on to defeat Lorenzo Sonego in four tight sets, Denis Kudla in three and Andreas Seppi in four before losing to No. 8 seed Matteo Berrettini in four sets.

He earned $265,000. And then he went right back to playing Challengers for the rest of the season, winning three of them to finally jump into the top 100 for the first time.

Flashing back to that after seeing poor Tomas Martin Etcheverry make a mess of it yesterday. Poor guy.

Etcheverry qui se vomit dessus noooon 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/lu7fzlvRkd

— Flubix (@flubixor) August 28, 2024

Where are they now?

Since then, Otte rose to a career high No. 36 in June, 2022 after making back-to-back semis in Stuttgart and Halle on grass, and reaching the third round of Wimbledon.

He missed three months in the middle of 2023, and another three from Feb.-May 2024. And he hasn’t played since the grass-court season. His ranking is down to No. 646, and his total earnings for 2024: $25,772.

As for Lestienne, things have gone a little better.

He reached a career high inside the top 50 after a good Australian swing in 2023, although he was borderline top 100 by the end of that year and has had some trouble winning matches at the top ATP level.

Currently ranked No. 111, he squeezed into the main draw at the deadline. But he reportedly took ill during the U.S. hard-court swing. And he went out quickly to Jordan Thompson in three quick sets in the first round in New York Tuesday.

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