This year’s French Open and Wimbledon were postponed to later dates while the US Open will proceed as scheduled on Aug. 24 to Sept. 13. Things and schedules, however, are wholly dependent on where currents situations bring us.
Prior to Mr. coronavirus disease 2019’s (COVID-19) entry this year, January had Novak Djokovic joining Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Guillermo Vilas, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal as the only players to reach 900 career wins.
February came, and former world number one Kim Clijsters, after 8 years, returned to play in a tour match at the Dubai Tennis Championships. She, however, lost to Garbine Muguruza in straight sets. A few days later, Maria Sharapova, the sports unofficial poster girl, retired from active play at the age of 32.
March came and the first to surrender to COVID-19 a day before it was set to start was the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. A week later, Roland Garros moved the tournament to September while the rest of the tennis world agreed to suspend play until June 8.
In two weeks, 12 indoor tennis courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York were transformed into a 350-bed supplemental hospital space with 20 intensive care units. The Arthur Ashe Stadium, meanwhile, was utilized to prepare and to distribute 25,000 meal packs a day.
The hospital facility is now officially closed after its final patient left earlier this month. Crews had disassembled and sanitized the area to make it ready for tennis activities again.
Aside from COVID-19, some other world events forced tennis to stop.
World War 1 and World War 2 halted the Davis Cup, Wimbledon and the Australian Championships. At the start of the World War 2, the French Open and Wimbledon took a break for six years. The following year, in 1941, the Australian Open followed. The US Open, then called the US Nationals, meanwhile, was not cancelled because New York was far from the action.
A WTC event was taking action in Lagos, Nigeria in 1976 when a coup happened. The Nigerian president was assassinated in the middle of the tournament. Play was halted at gunpoint when soldiers entered the court and shoved guns at players’ backs. There was evacuation, followed by players’ anxious days due to shuttling between hotels and going through checkpoints with machine guns pointed at their cars.
Advances in technology and travel had made tennis more global. There will always be interaction between players, officials, staff and, fans. This COVID-19 pandemic had made things difficult not only for tennis and the whole sports but likewise in our everyday lives./PN
