European clay court swing wiped out as Coronavirus spreads
(Photo via Erwan Hesry on Unsplash)
The population of planet earth are currently engaged in the same battle, the same war against one very powerful invisible enemy – the Coronavirus. But in this time of uncertainty as countries continue to shutdown their borders; leaving their citizens housebound and many out of work. As the world should be uniting in its one common goal, the tennis world in comparison has perhaps never been more divided.
This comes following the recent surprise unilateral decision of the French Tennis Federation (FTF) to, without discussion or consultation with other events, move the French Open from its usual date between May 24 and June 7, to a date in mid-September. Just one week after the US Open is due to end.
This decision has drawn widespread criticism from players, fans and pundits alike with many branding the decision as ‘selfish’.
The first event to vocalise their anger at the decision was the relatively new Laver Cup, a Ryder Cup style team event, devised by Roger Federer, which has already sold out tickets for this fourth edition of the tournament.
The proposed new dates for the French Open directly clash with the Laver Cup who were quick to release the following statement:
Full copy of the Laver Cup's statement
(Photo via @LaverCup on Twitter)
The situation has since escalated with the vice-president of the German Tennis Federation (DTB) Dirk Hordorff warning that the French Open could face penalties if they insist on going ahead with their proposed date change. This came following Hordorff revealing that July’s Wimbledon Championship is due to be officially cancelled.
It would mark the first year since the end of the Second World War that Wimbledon has not took place.
“Wimbledon has stated that they will have a board meeting next Wednesday and will make the final decision there,” Hordorff told Sky Sports Germany. “I am also involved in the bodies of the ATP and WTA. The necessary decisions have already been made there and Wimbledon will decide to cancel next Wednesday. There is no doubt about it. This is necessary in the current situation.
Hordorff continued by clarifying that the idea of hosting the event given the current climate was simply unattainable stating:
“It is completely unrealistic to imagine that with the travel restrictions that we currently have an international tennis tournament where hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world would travel. That is unthinkable.”
The cancellation of Wimbledon will come as little surprise to many with the All England Club having already made clear that it would not consider the possibility of playing the event behind closed doors with dates later in the year not realistic given the unpredictability of British weather.
Hordorff did, however, go on to warn the French Open it could yet lose its ranking points if it continues to go it solo commenting:
“The unilateral behaviour of the organisers has been criticised by everyone and I can simply predict that the French Open will not be relocated as it was intended,”
“They will be deprived of the points and they will degenerate into a chaos event,” he said. “Even those there have understood that and they are slowly crawling back. Solidarity is the order of the day, it is a matter of being together and not going it alone, as the president of the French tennis association did.”
As of now the tennis tour remains suspended until June 7 but with Coronavirus cases/deaths increasing by the day throughout Britain and the world that already seems like an unattainable return date. In fact many are now wondering whether we might have already seen the last of tennis until the start of the 2021 campaign at the earliest.
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