Australian Open star shares worrying health | Sports News

Tennis skilled Renata Zarazua has delivered a sobering message concerning the risks of solar publicity after sharing a startling image of her badly burned back on social media.

The Mexican participant has been competing within the Hobart International in Tasmania this week whereas gearing up for the upcoming Australian Open. Yet it seems the blistering heat grew to become an excessive amount of for Zarazua to deal with. She captioned the eye-opening picture: “The Australian sun is no joke.”

Several hours afterward, she posted one other image displaying her blistered pores and skin remained purple and swollen. That message translated as: “Thanks for your advice, everything has improved,” after receiving suggestions from her followers about treating the burns.

Zarazua finally exited the Hobart match within the spherical of 16 by the hands of American opponent Iva Jovic. She had overwhelmed Hiroko Kuwata in straight units and barely survived a take a look at from US participant Hailey Baptiste in earlier rounds, earlier than the 18-year-old Jovic introduced the Mexican’s run to an finish.

Temperatures throughout components of Victoria, which is able to stage the Australian Open from January 18, have climbed into the mid-40s over the previous week. While Tasmanian temperatures have not fairly hit such excessive heights, they’ve nonetheless reached round 26°C, enough to trigger lasting injury if uncovered for extended durations.

Tasmania has seen UV ranges spike to between eight and 11 on the index in current days. The Cancer Council notes that Australia experiences some of the planet’s highest UV radiation depth.

Merely quarter-hour of unprotected publicity during peak UV durations is enough to trigger pores and skin injury. It’s unclear whether or not Zarazua had used sunscreen.

This is not the primary time Australia’s brutal heat has impacted top-tier athletes. Back in January 2018, Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils endured a grueling Australian Open match in excessive temperatures.

Monfils visibly wilted during the second set, repeatedly doubling over and unable to return serves in a single sport. The Frenchman later referred to as it the hardest circumstances he’d encountered, stating: “I’m telling you, I was dying on the court for 40 minutes.”

Zarazua enters the 12 months’s first Grand Slam ranked seventieth worldwide, competing within the match for the third time. Last 12 months, she superior to the second spherical earlier than dropping to fourth seed Jasmine Paolini.

However, Zarazua has had a profitable 2025 run, successful the Austin 125 title in November and beating Olivia Gadecki and Emerson Jones to secure the WTT W100 championship in Georgia final October.

Her standout achievement got here when she defeated reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys on the US Open. She additionally made historical past as the primary Mexican participant since 1995 to beat a top-10 seeded rival.