Sunday, February 7, 2021 – 02:02
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The distinctions made between tennis players to pass the quarantine and the threat of the coronavirus mark the start of the first great of the season.
Image of Melbourne Park in the Khachanov-Sinner match.
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At this point, on the eve of the start of the Australian Open, it would be normal to reflect on the possibility that Rafael Nadal exceed 20 large Roger Federer or about the new stake of Serena Williams to achieve, at last, equal the 24 majors from Margaret Court. By now, in fact, we should already have the answers instead of asking the questions, because under normal conditions, like those still enjoyed a year ago, the tournament will be over.
The first major of the course begins in Melbourne in the early hours of Monday, still with the heated debate about the class distinction that has existed among tennis players when facing the quarantine required by the Australian Government and under the constant concern imposed by the pandemic. Just look back to last Wednesday, when the positive of an employee of a Melbourne hotel where many tennis players were staying led to the immediate cancellation of the tournaments in dispute, which were resumed the next day once their contacts had been rigorously tracked. “Everything has been too forced. If you take stock, the result gives you an error. Moving so many people here was not an essential need,” he says over the phone from Melbourne. Its a Pearl, coach of Dusan Lajovic. “Professionals are deeply rooted in living from sensations. The court, the temperature, the ball, everything requires an adaptation process. This is precisely why they are used to being flexible, but this is out of any pattern.”
Lajovic, 26, belongs to the vast majority of players who endured quarantine in Melbourne, in conditions very different from those of Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem, Serena, Halep u Osaka, who spent it in Adelaide, subjected to fewer restrictions, without the limit of a single companion and with better possibilities to train.
Best of three sets matches should be played
“It is a high-level competition and the players have not been able to prepare well. The way to combat the pandemic is outstanding in Australia, but the conditions for tennis are different,” he explains to this newspaper. Marc Boada, physiotherapist Andrey Rublev, eighth of the ranking. “It has been an abnormal preparation. The preseason loads are cut in half. The tournament should have adapted to the circumstances, with matches to the best of three sets or solutions in that direction. You work three hours a day to compete five.”
Social support
The exceptional nature of the situation also implies a greater emotional demand for the players. “It is logical that they have a bad time, with concerns added to those of the competition itself, such as their personal safety. Although there is little risk for them, unexpected things can happen. Social support is important, that they can express their fears and concerns. Those who do not travel accompanied, can do so online“, he thinks Jos Manuel Beirn, specialist in sports psychology and Olympic silver with the Spanish basketball team at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
The United States Open and Roland Garros have already been played under the scourge of the pandemic, in circumstances very different from the usual ones, but without the protagonists having to undergo a period of quarantine. “Each tennis player, each coach, has their method and their hours of work. Here they have organized it for you, and those who have made the decisions, in general, have been unprofessional. Sometimes club rooms at 10 o’clock in the morning. night and the next day they were waiting for you at seven in the morning. Out of 11 training sessions, six have been indoors, and some of them on sloppy courts, which have nothing to do with those where the tournament will be played ” , explains Perlas, without ceasing to express his gratitude for the dedication of the organizers and the Australian authorities.
Every tennis player, every coach, has his method. Here they have organized it for you, and those who have made the decisions, in general, have been unprofessional
If usually, being the first major tournament of the season, played under extremely high temperatures, injuries have always proliferated at the Australian Open, the risk is even higher this time. “They cut your wings. We have hardly been able to do quality work. They told us the night before about the gym we could go to. In some there were weights, in others not,” says Boada.
In principle, in a country practically free of coronavirus, the entry of 30,000 daily spectators at the venue, an unusual circumstance in sport since the pandemic broke out. “Even if there is less public, it will be similar, because the people are quite close. Tennis players, after all, as in football and basketball, can compete, and they seek creative solutions to difficulties. Worse. Certain athletes, gymnasts, swimmers have it, who may have spent four years preparing for the Olympic Games and are exposed to higher levels of frustration, “says Beirn.
According to the criteria of
