re: Tennis 2020 -- The Unofficial Non-GS Thread

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How long until tennis matches are played again - and what does the lockdown mean for rankings? By Simon Briggs, TENNIS CORRESPONDENT 12 May 2020 • 12:19pm

When could tennis resume?

On a social level, tennis is already up and running in many European countries. It resumes in France this week and courts in Britain are allowed to open from Wednesday, on the basis that you only play with members of your own household or one person from outside your household.

Professionally, the outlook is exceptionally bleak. Craig Tiley, the man in charge of next year’s Australian Open, is already talking about a scenario in which the tournament – which normally raises more revenue than any other sporting event in January, including the Superbowl – doesn’t happen.

What are the main stumbling blocks?

As a pastime, tennis should be largely immune to an infectious virus, given that the players mostly remain at least 60ft away from each other. But as a global sport, it is disastrously vulnerable. The disease has cruelly converted tennis’s greatest strength – its worldwide reach – into a massive weakness.

For the tour to work, there needs to be equality of access. Yet free international travel is sure to be the last thing to resume. And until that happens, we will have to rebuild around localised exhibition events.

How will tennis be adapted when it resumes?

We are already seeing individual local events start up, including the Tennis Point Exhibition Series near the small German town of Hohr-Grenzhausen. This involves only local players, each of whom has his own 3m cabin, and wears a facemask while not competing. There are no ballkids, nor line judges, apart from a chair umpire. Fans are not invited.

Meanwhile, the first round of the UTR Pro Match Series in Florida was won on Saturday by American giant Reilly Opelka, and the expected relaxation of tennis-club rules in Britain could mean that the Murray brothers appear in an exhibition event in London at around the time when Wimbledon would otherwise have been staged.

How much of the season could still be played and which tournaments are under threat?

In theory, the tour is still expecting to resume after July 13. In practice, everyone knows that is impractical. The United States Tennis Association says that it is “aggressively wargaming” scenarios for the US Open, which is supposed to begin on August 24.

The French Open, which has already been postponed until Sept 20, is now inching back another week. But most professional players are coming round to the idea of a complete wipeout of the season. As Rafael Nadal told El Pais last week, “I think 2020 is practically lost.”

Will fans be able to attend?

Highly unlikely, barring some medical breakthrough. The best-case scenario would see some local fans admitted to January’s Australian Open. In an email to the Telegraph last month, Tiley said “We are reviewing options for the positioning of fans, how you enable households to sit together but at a safe distance to others, and even watching tennis virtually but in proximity of the action.”

What have been the financial implications of lockdown on tennis?

The fact that the All England Club had taken out pandemic insurance for Wimbledon was a huge get-out-of-jail card for the British game. But if the US Open cannot be staged, the United States Tennis Association will face drastic repercussions from a loss of some $400m in revenues, probably including the laying off of more than half their staff.

Similarly, the financial director of the French Open has said that E260m of revenues would be lost without the tournament, wiping out at least E100m of annual funding for the French recreational game.

Around the world, smaller tournaments are facing similar crises, while relief funds have been set up to help players who are no longer able to earn. In the UK, the Lawn Tennis Association’s £20m fund is mostly aimed at tiding over local facilities with £5,000 loans, although individual payments of £1,140 have also been forwarded to certain players and registered coaches.

On Tuesday night, a $6m player relief program was announced by the four grand slams and three professional tours, which is intended to cover 800 hard-up players. If equally distributed, that would work out at $7,500 per head.

How could this affect tennis’s messy governance model?

Tennis has often suffered from its atomised governance structure, which involves three professional tour bodies – the ATP, the WTA and the ITF – as well as four grand slams. Each of these seven stakeholders has traditionally worked in its own interest.

But there has been an upsurge in cooperation since March 17, the day when the French Tennis Federation infuriated the rest of the game by unilaterally announcing the postponement of the French Open.

Then, a fortnight ago, Roger Federer sparked much debate with a tweet suggesting that the men’s and women’s tours should come under one roof. This idea was supported on Monday by WTA chief executive Steve Simon, while the new ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi has also expressed enthusiasm for a merger.

The main stumbling block is likely to be provided by middle-ranking male players, who earn at least a third as much again as their female equivalents, and would fear a redistribution of wealth.

“I’ve had conversations in the past where there’s been prizemoney increases,” said Andy Murray in a recent interview with CNN, “and let’s say the first-round losers’ cheque from the men has gone from $8,000 to $10,000, and the women went from $6,000 to $10,000.

“I spoke to some of the male players who were unhappy because the prizemoney was equal. I said ‘Would you rather there was no increase at all?’ and they said ‘Yeah, actually’. And I was like, ‘That’s some of the mentality that you’re working with in these discussions.’”

Could there be a buy-out?

One doomsday scenario involves a lengthy suspension of tour events that extends well into 2021. Both the ATP and WTA would find their coffers emptying out rapidly, especially without the finals events at the end of the year which supply much of their income.

In this situation, one could imagine a billionaire impresario popping up with an alternative plan, and potentially unifying the sport (grand slams not included, as they are financial behemoths) in the same manner that Bernie Ecclestone once did with Formula One

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OFFICIAL: tennis authorities extend tour suspension till the end of July.

Events cancelled:

WTA Bucharest, Lausanne, Latvia, Palermo

ATP Hamburg, Newport, Bastad, Los Cabos, Gstaad, Umag, Atlanta & Kitzbühel

First week back would now be Washington/San Jose

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