His Message for Tennis in the Desert: Cool It

I was pleased to read in Bill Dwyre’s Pacific Life Open commentary [March 22] that tournament director Charlie Pasarell is going to look into addressing what he called the “sun problem.”

Uh, it’s the desert. Who knew?

Having attended the finals from up in the loge section -- closer to that sun than the stadium court -- and witnessed at least five people wheeled out suffering from varying degrees of heat exhaustion, here’s a contingency idea that might bypass Charlie’s plan to erect some sort of shading: night games.

If it’s hotter than 90 degrees by 10 a.m., shove all the matches back to commence at dusk and put those magnificent, towering light poles to use. Sure it’ll still be stifling, but at least the sun will be down and I’ll be able to plant my tennis-loving self in one of those cheap plastic seats without searing off a layer or two of my skin.

Will Campbell

Los Angeles