Tennis
WIMBLEDON CHIEF FEARS ‘NO MORE TENNIS THIS YEAR’
Wimbledon chief Richard Lewis admitted on Thursday (April 2) that he feared the remainder of the 2020 tennis season could be wiped out.
Tennis has been in lockdown since early last month and is not scheduled to return until July 13 at the earliest following the cancellation of Wimbledon for the first time since World War II on Wednesday.
The decision to axe the sport’s oldest and most prestigious Grand Slam event due to the coronavirus pandemic followed the French Open’s unilateral switch from its traditional May-June slot to September-October.
The double body blow resulted in the entire claycourt and grasscourt seasons being abandoned.
“I don’t think it’s unrealistic to say that there may be no more tennis this year,” said All England Club chief executive Lewis.
“But I would like to think that things will settle down so that tournaments can be played sooner rather than later. Who knows what will happen?” Lewis told the Guardian that, despite his fears, he hoped that the season’s next Grand Slam, the US Open in August-September could take place.
“Let’s hope the US Open and Roland Garros (rescheduled to start in Paris a week after the final of the US Open in New York) can take place,” he added.
“The optimist in me – and I am often not optimistic – still hopes the American hard-court season, the big tournaments, the Masters and the Premiers, will take place: Montreal, Toronto and then Cincinnati.
“But we all know that’s probably tenuous at the moment.
Earlier on Thursday, the president of the Spanish tennis federation (RFET), Miguel Diaz, said he hoped the sport could return to the courts “in the last quarter of the year”.
“I think that in the last quarter of the season we will be able to see tennis again, we don’t know if it will be with fans in attendance or without, but I think our sport will return to the courts,” said Diaz, in a statement released by RFET.
In Spain, he said, “we have had to suspend dozens of tournaments that were on the calendar” at all professional levels.
Top-level tournaments such as the Madrid Open, a joint ATP and WTA event, and the Barcelona Open and Mallorca Open, both on the ATP Tour, have been scratched in the aftermath of the rescheduling of the French Open and the cancellation of Wimbledon.
Diaz said it was “logical” that Wimbledon decided to cancel, but added: “I think that now tennis becomes secondary.” “What is needed is to heal.”
-AFP
Argentina’s 36-year-old Marco Trungelliti proved tennis dreams do not come with an expiration date when he became the oldest first-time tour-level finalist in the Open Era after beating the top seed at the Grand Prix Hassan II semi-finals in Marrakech on Saturday.
Trungelliti, who came through the tournament’s qualifiers, upset Italy’s defending champion Luciano Darderi 6-4 7-6(2) to break the previous record held by Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic, who reached his first final aged 34 years in 2015.
Darderi, ranked 19 in the world, was only six-years-old when Trungelliti turned pro in 2008. With the victory, Trungelliti secured just his second career top-20 win.
“Of course, I believed it, that’s one of the reasons that I’m here. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible,” Trungelliti said in the on-court interview.
“I’ve worked a lot, me and my team and also my wife, my kid. We all believed in breaking the record basically and that’s exactly what we have done now.”
The milestone caps a remarkable journey for Trungelliti, who made his first ATP Tour semi-final in 2018 in Umag, Croatia – 402 weeks ago.
Having entered the tournament ranked 117 in the world, Trungelliti’s breakthrough week has already guaranteed he will crack the top 100 for the first time. He is currently ranked number 75 in the live rankings.
“It’s been happening the whole week, leaving the court with a victory,” added Trungelliti, who has dropped only one set at the tournament. “So hopefully (there) is one more to go.”
He will face Rafael Jodar on Sunday after the Spaniard prevented an all-Argentine final with a 6-2 6-1 victory over Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
-Reuters
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Serena Williams has been listed as eligible to return to tennis by the sport’s drug-testing body (ITIA) as of February 22, though it remains unclear whether the 23-time Grand Slam champion will make a stunning comeback to the women’s tour.
The 44-year-old raised eyebrows late last year after rejoining the tennis anti-doping testing pool, though she denied at the time the move signalled she was preparing to return to the sport she dominated for nearly two decades.
She reignited speculation last month when she deflected questions about a possible return during an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show.
The Women’s Tennis Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
Williams, who won her last Grand Slam singles title in 2017, has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open.
-Reuters
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Serena Williams has re-entered the tennis anti-doping testing pool but the 23-times Grand Slam champion denied on Tuesday that the move had anything to do with her making a return to the sport she dominated for nearly two decades.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed to Reuters that Williams, who has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open, was among the list of players in its testing pool, which requires individuals to provide their whereabouts at any given time, every day, and participate in random testing
But as the story of 44-year-old Williams’ inclusion on the list, first reported earlier on Tuesday by The Athletic, gained traction and sparked talk about her potential return, the tennis great took to social media to deny a comeback was in her plans.
“Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy,” Williams wrote on X.
Her agent did not immediately respond to an email from Reuters asking why the player had re-entered the testing pool.
Williams’ name appears on the ITIA website’s list of retired players and would be able to return to a sanctioned event after making herself available for out-of-competition testing for at least six months.
Last week former world number one Williams posted a series of photos on Instagram showing herself on a tennis court with her youngest daughter, Adira River, whom she gave birth to in August 2023.
In August 2022, ahead of her final U.S. Open, Williams announced in a Vogue article that she was “evolving away from tennis.”
Williams, who won her last Grand Slam singles title in 2017, had been chasing an elusive 24th crown that would have drawn her level with Australian Margaret Court, who holds the record.
The American came tantalisingly close to achieving that feat, featuring in four major finals since giving birth to her first daughter, Olympia, in 2017.
-Reuters
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