NEW YORK – It’s hot. Again.
It was barely noon when the first soldier fell, American Patrick Kypson, down 0-6, 0-3 to No. 15 seed Caspar Ruud of Norway.
Could you feel worse for the kid? Just 15 and ranked outside the top 200 in the juniors, he gets a wild card into the US Open and upsets a top-50 ranked French player in the first round.
And then this.
Worse, he practically had to do the perp walk of heatstroke shame through the whole complex, which took forever.
Kypson was playing on Court 7, and wherever the medical facilities were (it seems they may have taken him to the second floor of the 
indoor building – a long way away), he had a long ride. Shirtless, in a wheelchair, motioneless, ice bags all over his body, he was wheeled around court 7, through the booth area behind Court 13, around the back of the complex where Court 17 is – and right through the food court, next to where the burgers were frying and the pizzas cooking and the fans gathering.
The guy pushing the wheelchair, to clear the way, kept yelling, “US OPEN WHEELCHAIR! STAND CLEAR!” So that didn’t help Kypson wade through that long journey incognito. Some people were gawking, a few walked up to offer sympathy. Most ignored it, which is astonishing.
Less than an hour later, the heat rule was invoked for the juniors for any matches starting at 1 p.m. or later.
Toronto’s Denis Shapovalov got started at 1:20 p.m., so he just made it. Félix Auger-Aliassime, who was out watching his pal Charlotte Robillard-Millette and reported that even during his 10:45 a.m. warmup, it was already steamy, plays later.
At least Auger-Aliassime (along with Robillard-Millette’s big brother Williams) was wearing a hat.
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