After nearly a year of the global coronavirus pandemic, our planet has yet to eradicate the disease. Last year, prestigious events such as Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Wimbledon, Shanghai and the Next Gen Finals in Milan were canceled, to name a few.
To date, the pandemic has caused the deaths of two and a half million people around the world and infected 113 million. The last edition of the Australian Open had the privilege of returning to see spectators in the stands (albeit in limited numbers), though the sudden discovery of new cases of positivity forced closed competitions for five days.
This year we will play at Wimbledon again and tennis players can finally take part in the games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo, which have been postponed for twelve months.
Herwig Straka: “This is how it looks”
The former manager of world number 4 Dominic Thiem, the Austrian Herwig Straka, said, as reported by Essentially Sports: “Tournaments want to play, the men’s calendar is relatively safe.
We will probably not have spectators again until June, until Roland Garros the situation looks bad. “In a few days the world of tennis will finally see the big return to the field of former ATP number one Roger Federer, who has not been on the tour for more than a year (Australian Open 2020).
The Swiss is returning to the ATP 250 in Doha, Qatar, an event he has already won three times in his career. His last participation in Qatar ExxonMobil dates back to 2012 and in this edition Roger overtook Nikolay Davydenko, Grega Zemlja and the Italian Andreas Seppi before giving up in the semi-final where Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga would have expected him.
Federer will also be present at the Dubai Tennis Championships, a tournament he triumphed eight times (the last time in 2019 when he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 in the final). Photo credit: Parigi.it
It seems like there won’t be fans at tennis events during the clay season.
Herwig Straka, ATP Board member, said: „The tournaments want to play, the calendar for the men is relatively secure. Spectators will probably only return in June, until the French Open it looks bad.“ — Nikolaus Fink (@NikolausFink) February 25, 2021
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