--- title: Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco Feud Over Heat Rule description: Fernando Verdasco sent Andy Murray home at the U.S. Open on Wednesday but not without heated controversy over the heat rule. canonical: https://time.com/5382600/andy-murray-verdasco/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-30T13:30:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T17:53:35.000Z og:title: Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco Are Having a Heated Dispute og:description: They're feuding over the 2018 U. S. Open heat break rule og:url: https://time.com/5382600/andy-murray-verdasco/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee33cae821fb67e6/6989390c4ee262ef3b312b82/andymurrayverdasco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2828 og:image:height: 1591 og:image:alt: 2018 US Open - Day 3 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco Are Having a Heated Dispute twitter:description: They're feuding over the 2018 U. S. Open heat break rule twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee33cae821fb67e6/6989390c4ee262ef3b312b82/andymurrayverdasco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco Are Having a Heated Disagreement Over the U.S. Open Heat Break Rule > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=36728e92-ea83-48f9-9ee6-c1a74ea9c0c9&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Why Is Tennis Scored So Weirdly? [Watch (HLS stream): Why Is Tennis Scored So Weirdly?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lmEqspYj.m3u8) (3:03)  _Published 2018-01-11. All sports have their own vocabularies, the shorthand lingo to communicate intricacies of rules and how play proceeds_ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Updated: Dec 12, 2023 5:53 PM UTCPublished: Aug 30, 2018 1:30 PM UTC  Andy Murray of Great Britain returns the ball during his men's singles second round match against Fernando Verdasco of Spain on Day Three of the 2018 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 29, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) Andy Murray of Great Britain returns the ball during his men's singles second round match against Fernando Verdasco of Spain on Day Three of the 2018 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 29, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) Julian Finney—Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Updated: Dec 12, 2023 5:53 PM UTCPublished: Aug 30, 2018 1:30 PM UTC Fernando Verdasco sent Andy Murray home at the [2018 U.S. Open](http://time.com/5381396/alize-cornet-us-open-shirt/) on Wednesday, but not without a clash about the [heat rule](http://time.com/5380134/us-open-2018-felix-auger-aliassime/) at the U.S. Open that continued to cause controversy. The U.K.’s Murray and Spain’s Verdasco faced off in their at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City on Wednesday night which saw Verdasco besting Murray in the match 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. It was a scorcher with temperatures closing in on 100 degrees Farenheight, and both players took a beat during the heat break when they were tied in the second round. Under the new stipulation, players can pause to rehydrate and cool off. But they’re strictly prohibited from speaking with their coaches, something Murray told reporters he witnessed Verdasco doing. Verdasco has denied this. “\[Verdasco\] was having an ice bath,” Murray said during his [postmatch news conference](https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/45352830). “When I came out of the shower, his coach and his…I don’t know if he’s playing doubles with him, but one of the Spanish doubles players….was in there chatting to him, and you’re not allowed to speak to your coach. I went and told the supervisor.” Murray said he raised the issue with the supervisor. “What are you guys doing? I mean, there’s clear rules here, and you’re allowing this to take place. I don’t get it. They obviously weren’t in there for long, but you got to do better than that. This is one of the biggest events in the world. If you have rules like that, you need to stick with them because one player getting to speak to the coach and the other not is not fair.” The two tennis greats’ accounts differ. “I know the rule exactly. I didn’t speak anything to any member of my team,” [Verdasco said](http://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/article/24518015/andy-murray-says-fernando-verdasco-broke-rule-speaking-coach-heat-break) in a post-match conference. Murray has struggled with an ongoing hip injury, and this marked his return since his last match in 2016\. As the tennis star bowed out of the Open, he shared remarks in an Instagram post that worked in a jab at Verdasco. “I’m off to get a health check as apparently I’ve started imagining things #liarliarpantsonfire,” the caption read. **Correction Sept. 4** _The original version of this story misstated Andy Murray’s birthplace. He is from Scotland, not England._ ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5382600/andy-murray-verdasco/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5382600/andy-murray-verdasco/"},"headline":"Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco Are Having a Heated Disagreement Over the U.S. Open Heat Break Rule","datePublished":"2018-08-30T13:30:31.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T17:53:35.000Z","description":"Fernando Verdasco sent Andy Murray home at the U.S. Open on Wednesday but not without heated controversy over the heat rule.","url":"https://time.com/5382600/andy-murray-verdasco/","keywords":["Newsfeed","tennis","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee33cae821fb67e6/6989390c4ee262ef3b312b82/andymurrayverdasco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee33cae821fb67e6/6989390c4ee262ef3b312b82/andymurrayverdasco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2018 US Open - Day 3","caption":"Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco at US Open","creditText":"Julian Finney—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5382600/andy-murray-verdasco/","name":"Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco Are Having a Heated Disagreement Over the U.S. Open Heat Break Rule"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why Is Tennis Scored So Weirdly?","description":"All sports have their own vocabularies, the shorthand lingo to communicate intricacies of rules and how play proceeds","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/lmEqspYj/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-01-11T21:34:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lmEqspYj.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5382600/andy-murray-verdasco/","duration":"PT3M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5382600/andy-murray-verdasco/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```