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How cold is too cold to play tennis?

The women at the ITF tournament in Spring, Texas were finding out on Wednesday.

(UPDATE: After three singles matches were completed on Thursday, play was cancelled for the rest of the day. And they cancelled the doubles event altogether).

When the matches appeared paused Wednesday night, the initial first thought was that it was raining.

That was an ITF website glitch, it turns out. Not a rare occurrence.

But a quick check of the weather forecast revealed something unusual and likely extremely unpleasant.

You would think that they would stop play.

You’d be wrong. Even for the hardy Canadians.

Well past 8 p.m., American Caty McNally and Miyu Crossley of Japan took to the court, bundled up like Pillsbury dough boys. I mean, that’s insane.

Just prior to that match, Canadian Katherine Sebov had played Astra Sharma. And Sharma, an Aussie, retired down 1-6, 0-1.

Before that, Canadian Cadence Brace retired down 1-4 in her match.

Another Canadian, Carol Zhao – one of several players in the draw who had come directly from the WTA 125 in warm and humid Cancún – found herself moving onto the second round when opponent Sachia Vickery retired, also at 1-4.

Zhao, who had the … once-in-a-lifetime experience of playing at 11 p.m. at night in the qualifying at Roland Garros the year it was held in October (Open Court’s fingers were so numb from the cold, we found an extra pair of tennis socks in the bottom of the backpack and put them on our hands to thaw them out – no joke), said this was SIGNIFICANTLY colder than that.

“Snowing cold”, as she termed it.

The players complained in Spring, but play carried on.

We reached out to tournament director Victor Piñones (who is also an owner and president of the Giammalva Racquet Club hosting the tournament on its 20 outdoor courts) to get a sense of what the thinking was.

Pinones isn’t a happy camper, either. It’s no fun trying to put on a show for the fans and club members in these conditions; on Tuesday, there was a lot of rain.

He said the decision was up to the supervisor. And the supervisor did ask both the USTA and the ITF, who responded that there is nothing in the rulebook that prevents them from continuing play, even in those extreme temperatures.

Austin even worse

But this is not just an (unfortunately named) Spring fling (Spring is about a half-hour drive north of Houston).

Some 150 miles west of Spring in Austin – where the WTA Tour event is taking place next week – it’s even worse.

No. 3 Canadian Marina Stakusic, who is taking part in the Austin tournament, had just arrived from home in Toronto – where they’ve had a huge dumping of snow and frigid temperatures.

Only to get to Texas and … find it’s not much warmer.

Luckily, unlike in Spring, there were indoor facilities available. Not that they’re in the habit of heating those barns, as they do in Canada. More often, players like to go inside to avoid the oppressive summer because it’s air conditioned. And when it rains.

As you can see below, Stakusic is plenty bundled up there, too.

Coach Rob Steckley told Open Court that they didn’t expect to be able to hit outside Thursday. Friday doesn’t look very good either.

Better long-term forecast

On the optimistic side, it’s going to quickly warm up for the WTA tournament in Austin next week, which will feature the return of Petra Kvitova from maternity leave.

Hopefully everyone who’s already there won’t freeze and break off fingers and toes in the interim. That first day of qualifying looks … lit – NOT.