Image: Keystone
The most famous and prestigious tennis tournament does not take place this summer. For the first time since 1945, Wimbledon has to postpone a staging by one year. The rest of the European lawn season was also canceled.
As suspected for a few days, the organizers of Wimbledon decided not to hold this year’s event. Due to the Corona crisis, implementation at the scheduled time beginning on June 29 was unrealistic. A postponement to August was examined but ultimately rejected. Nobody can predict whether normal operation would then be possible.
Although a new time window had opened for Wimbledon due to the postponement of the Olympic Games, the possibilities of the lawn tournament remained limited. Already in September, the surface would be too damp and slippery to play tennis at the highest level due to the low sun exposure. Only the two largest squares have a closable roof.
For the first time since World War II, there is no Grand Slam tournament. In the past, delicate moments were survived unscathed. Most recently, the Australian Open had to worry about the bush fires this January.
In the wake of Wimbledon’s cancellation, ITF, ATP and WTA announced that all other planned European lawn tournaments will not take place this summer. All events that should have taken place before Wimbledon are affected, including the Halle tournament. The tour will pause at least until July 12th.
The worldwide tennis break will continue to extend. The French organizers arbitrarily moved the French Open into autumn.
No more tennis this year?
But it is more than questionable whether it can be played again at all. In hardly any other sport are players, coaches and referees so dependent on global freedom of travel as on the tennis tour. But the travel sector in particular is likely to be the last to return to normal in the global corona crisis.
Which is why the boss of the Australian Open is already painting a horror scenario on the wall. “My personal view is that it will be difficult for tennis to come back this year,” says Craig Tiley of the “Sydney Morning Herald”. “We have to plan for the worst case and hope for the best.”
Memories of Wimbledon 2019
First the semi-final thriller Federer – Nadal:
