Andrea Petkovic really didn’t want to leave the Louis Armstrong Stadium court for a heat break after the second set of her match against Jelena Ostapenko on Tuesday. But she didn’t want to spend the 10-minute timeout in the sun while Ostapenko cooled off, so Petkovic headed for a private, air-conditioned room under the building — which turned out to be a mistake.
She drank some cold water and draped herself in ice towels, changed her drenched socks and wet shoes. She was not permitted to talk to a coach, and didn’t have time to open a David Foster Wallace novel that was packed in her bag.