Canadian tennis star leaves Australian Open in wheelchair

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It may be winter here in Canada, but the heat is rising at the Australian Open.

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In fact, the temperature Down Under was too much for Mississauga’s Marina Stakusic to handle, forcing her to withdraw from her match against Priscilla Hon and needing a wheelchair to leave the court.

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During the second-round singles match early on Monday, Stakusic was trailing 6-1, 4-6, 3-5 when she needed treatment for a severe leg cramp.

After a point, Stakusic fell to the ground at ANZ Arena and appeared to be in immediate discomfort.

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Her opponent and medical staff rushed to her aid helped her into a wheelchair.

The Canadian appeared to be in tears as she was rolled off the court to receive further treatment.

“I really hope she does feel better. That was quite a scene out there,” Hon said. “I had quite a few people come up to me and be, like, ‘Wow, that was so dramatic.’”

What is the heat like?

The high heat already has been an issue early on at the Australian Open, with temperatures around 29C on Monday, though humidity was considered low by local standards.

The issue could come into full force this coming weekend, with the current high for Saturday forecast to be around 36C.

Stakusic wasn’t the only Canadian player affected by the heat, either. Men’s star Felix Auger-Aliassime also was forced to bow out of his match with Nuno Borges of Portugal.

Auger-Aliassime withdraws

Auger-Aliassime was trailing 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 in a match that already had lasted roughly two hours when he retired.

After the match, the Montreal native said that he had never experienced cramps like that before.

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“I can’t recall ever in my life (cramping) this early in a tournament, this early in a match,” Auger-Aliassime said, according to AP. “I’m OK, but I just started cramping at the start of the third set. Yeah, it became very difficult to be competitive at this level.”

Ball girl collapses during match

During an opening-round match between Zeynep Sonmez and Ekaterina Alexandrova on Sunday, a ball girl lost balance and stumbled backwards near the umpire’s chair.

The girl wobbled and fell on her back, but quickly got back up.

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That’s when Sonmez put her hand up to suspend play as she went courtside to help the girl to find some shade to sit in. The crowd applauded her move.

The game was stopped for six minutes as medical staff attended to the ball girl.

“She was really struggling,” Sonmez told BBC Sport. “She said she was fine but it was really obvious she was not fine. So I went to grab her and said, ‘Sit down and drink something, you’re not fine.’

“As we were walking she fainted, so luckily I grabbed her. She was really shaking.”

According to Tennis Australia, the ball girl went home after receiving medical attention.

–With files from Eddie Chau

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