Unfortunately, It does happen. Especially the dehydration bit. Umpires concentrate so continuously that on many occasions they simply forget to take in the necessary amount of liquids. Or they forgot to bring a bottle to the table and try to man it out.
As players in that situation, we have to judge the situation, be sympathetic and say in the simplest most diplomatic way, "Are you okay? Do you want me to speak to the referee?" He will wake up after that 😉.
Both players were polite for not getting the match referee involved imo.
It didn't happen for just few mins, it happened for most of the 34 mins. Su won 4-1 (back then it was still best out of 7s)
i'm afraid, its easy to say the player can be sympathetic or understanding, but have you thought of it in the players shoes?
A lost for Su, could mean she won't have another international for a very long time.
I'm not sure what is the consequence of a loss for Charlotte, but players need to pay high entry fees.
So from player part, it is very unfair that they need to be flipping the scoreboards themselves.
It would be easier to have no umpires and the 2 players would have a more normal match actually.
I do feel WTT should manage the health of its tournament staff a bit better or maybe have a umpire sub policy if the umpire feels he is unfit to continue.
These things don't happen often, but no one wants the umpire to actually collapse in the middle of the match
