Murray calls out Verdasco over heat rule disagreement

NEW YORK—The heat can make your mind play tricks on you, but this may be too much.

On Wednesday, Andy Murray lost 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, to Fernando Verdasco in the second round. Per the new extreme heat rules, both players took a 10-minute break after the third set. Players can change, jump in the ice bath, hydrate, stretch and cool off, but they are not allowed to speak with any member of their team or use their phones.

Murray returned to the court upset that Verdasco was with his coach in the locker room, and he tried to inform the umpire.

"He was having an ice bath. 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.

"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 Spanish player turned out to be Marcos Baghdatis' coach. Murray thought the mistake happened because the rules are so new and maybe players aren't aware.

"I'm not blaming Fernando and his team. They probably weren't aware that that was the rules," Murray said. "They certainly weren't trying to break any rules. It shouldn't be for the player that's competing against him to have to go to the supervisor. If I hadn't said anything, they would have been chatting, chatting about the match, giving tactics and stuff."

Verdasco came into the press room and gave his side of the story, which then caused things to turn interesting.

"I know the rule exactly," he said. "I know you can't talk with your team or use the phone or use anything. Is like a break on the court, but just on the locker. I saw my coach in the locker room, but I didn't even talk one word with him. I think he went to the toilet. I obviously cannot say, Don't go to the toilet. But actually we didn't even spoke one word.

It could have been left at that. But Murray took to Instagram to pen a farewell post to the US Open, and the last line indicated a bit of bad blood—although somewhat in jest.

"I'm off to get a health check as apparently I've started imagining things. #LiarLiarPantsOnFire."

We may never really know the truth. In any case, Verdasco has bigger fish to fry as he will play Juan Martin del Potro next.