2020 ATP Calendar & COVID-19 Impact

BATTLE OF THE BRITS - Roehampton, London | June 23-28, 2020





(Reuters) - Andy Murray will make his return to tennis at a behind-closed-doors tournament organized by his brother Jamie from June 23-28 in London, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) said on Friday.

Murray, 33, has not competed since the Davis Cup Finals in November due to complications with his hip. He was targeting a return to the tour at the Miami Open in March before the season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apart from the Murray brothers, the LTA announced that fellow Britons Dan Evans and Kyle Edmund would also take part in the exhibition tournament, with matches to be streamed on Amazon Prime.

Schroders BATTLE OF THE BRITS.
8 men, 6 doubles teams.
23-28 June
A Jamie Murray Production.@Schroders @primevideosport https://t.co/IdHwXiXlBO

— judy murray (@JudyMurray) May 29, 2020

ADRIA TOUR - Balkan Peninsula | June 13 - July 5, 2020




Regional exhibition tennis tournament Adria Tour will be held from June 13 – July 5, 2020 at several locations, with the main creator of the event being the world no.1 – Novak Djokovic.

Novak Djokovic has provided a line-up of the players who will be competing in his recently announced Adria Tour, which begins next month and is played across four Balkan nations.

The two-day events will start on in Belgrade, Serbia, at Djokovic's academy, and then move to Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia.

In addition to No. 1-ranked Djokovic, No. 3 Dominic Thiem, No. 7 Alexander Zverev and No. 19 Grigor Dimitrov will be the top players competing. The 'three big names' will all play in the opening leg in Belgrade. Zverev might play in Croatia too, while Dimitrov could appear in Croatia and in Montenegro.

Along with Djokovic, No. 184 Viktor Troicki, No. 107 Damir Dzumhur, and "other major European players" will play a round-robin competition, with two groups of four players each during the first three stops. Djokovic and Dzumhur, who is from Sarajevo, Bosnia, are scheduled for an exhibition there to finish the tour.

Eastern European championships - Belgrade | Starting June 15, 2020

Djokovic isn't the only player holding events while the tour is suspended. His fellow Serb, the recently-retired Janko Tipsarevic, is organizing an "Eastern European championships" in Belgrade starting June 15, which also involves some of the same players, including Troicki and Dzumhur, along with top Croats Borna Coric and Marin Cilic, along with other men's and women's players from Eastern Europe.

On his Instagram, Tipsarevic wrote:

“After a lot of challenges, hard work obstacles and commitment from everyone who will be involved, we are finally ready to announce the Eastern European Championship. We will be answering all of your questions in the upcoming weeks.”

Some of the names for the (mixed) Tipsarevic exho event in Belgrade (starts june 15th)
Coric
Lajovic
Dzumhur
Basilashvili (!)
Troicki
Djere
Kecmanovic
Berankis
Krajinovic

Begu
Danilovic
Kovinic
Tig
Zidansek
Bogdan

— José Morgado (@josemorgado) May 29, 2020

EQUILITE TOURNAMENT - Villena (Alicante) | Late June to early July, 2020

(Translated from Spanish)

Villena (Alicante), 28 May 2020

The Equilite tennis school run by Juan Carlos Ferrero in Villena will host, between June and the first week of July, the first professional tournament in Spain after the covid-19 crisis, with the participation of tennis players Alex de Minaur , Pablo Carreño and Joao Sousa, among other participants.

As reported by the Equilite school, all participants will donate their profits to charities. The organization of the tournament, which will serve to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the school, was delighted for being able to host the first tournament after the pandemic.

In addition, and as an opener for the tournament, a pre-championship exhibition match will be held with the participation of Roberto Bautista and Juan Carlos Ferrero himself, who stressed the importance that the tennis players' prize money "will be entirely donated to charities and each player will decide to which foundation they want to donate the amount they win."

Hispano-Australian settled in Alicante Alex de Miñaur will participate in the charity tournament in Equelite Villena.

Confirmed for the Equilite tournament in Alicante, july 2-5
Alex De Minaur
Pablo Carreño
João Sousa
Alex Davidovich
Carlos Alcaraz
- a player tba
(two groups of 3, winner of each group play the final)

+ an exho match between Ferrero and Bautista Agut.

— José Morgado (@josemorgado) May 29, 2020

From:  Sports Orange   (translate from French)

ATP Players to be informed on June 10 about Resumption Plans

By Aurélie SACCHELLI -  June 03, 2020

According to Spanish newspaper Marca, the ATP summoned the players for a video conference on 10 June to inform them of the decision taken about the rest of the season.

In a week's time, the tennis players will be fixed on the resumption of the season! In any case, this is what the Spanish newspaper Marca, which reveals on Wednesday that the ATP has summoned the players next Wednesday at 4 p.m. for a video conference to discuss the decision taken regarding the resumption of the season. At a standstill since the beginning of March, the men's tennis circuit (as well as the women's circuit) is suspended until 31 July, and the ATP will therefore decide in the next few days its resumption date, and in what form. The latest rumors were that the Cincinnati Masters 1000, scheduled for mid-August, could be played in New York, before the U.S. Open, so that players would not have to leave the Big Apple, making it easier to meet quarantine requirements.


Coaches to be convened on June 18

We will soon know more, knowing that ATP President Andrea Gaudenzi has always said that he wants the second part of the season to take place almost normally, with an American tour in August-September, two Masters 1000 on clay and Roland Garros in the autumn, then the Asian tour and the European indoor tour, concluded by the London Masters. The ATP will officially communicate its choices on June 15 (unless they have leaked by then...) and will convene the coaches three days later to inform them of the conditions to be met during the resumption. This suggests that the recovery will take place. It remains to be seen where and when.

U.S. Open Could Go On, With a 2-Tournament Bubble in New York

Officials are considering a central location to salvage two of the biggest tournaments in the United States.

Arthur Ashe Stadium seats nearly 24,000 fans. If the United States Open is played this year, the seats will most likely be empty. Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

By Christopher Clarey - New York Times

Published June 2, 2020 - Updated June 3, 2020

In an unusual attempt to save two of the top events in American tennis during the coronavirus pandemic, the United States Tennis Association has proposed staging a doubleheader in New York by moving a tournament that leads into the United States Open at the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The move, under consideration by the men’s and women’s tours, could allow foreign players to remain in one place for the duration of their stay in the United States, and establish a safer bubble for competitors similar to proposals by the N.B.A. and other sporting leagues.

The proposal would move the Western & Southern Open, a combined men’s and women’s event near Cincinnati, to New York but keep its general window on the calendar, leading into the U.S. Open at the same venue. The Western & Southern Open is currently scheduled for Aug. 17 to 23 while the main draw of the U.S. Open is slated for Aug. 31 to Sept. 13.

It is far from certain that either tournament can be played this year, but the maneuver is designed to help draw the needed support of government and public health officials as they manage the outbreak, travel and the economy. It is also unclear, especially given quarantine guidelines, whether enough players would be prepared to travel to New York, one of the disease’s epicenters. Many players have gone without income as both the men’s and women’s tours have been shut down since mid-March and scores of tournaments have been postponed or canceled.

Leaders of the men’s and women’s tours received the U.S.T.A. proposal this week, according to officials at the U.S.T.A. and the men’s and women’s tours, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not yet authorized to speak publicly about the potential move.

The tours would need to formally approve the moving of the Western & Southern Open from its home in Mason, Ohio. The U.S.T.A. owns the men’s event staged there while Octagon, a sports and entertainment agency, owns the women’s event.

The tour officials said that there could still be insurmountable obstacles for the plan, including quarantine rules that could require some athletes to self-isolate after arriving in the United States and again in Europe after returning. But those requirements could be changed for athletes.

“I appreciate that everyone is going outside the box to think of solutions in these circumstances,” said Bethanie Mattek-Sands, an American once ranked No. 1 in women’s doubles, who has been on the WTA player council. “We don’t really have anything in the rule books for this situation. Putting two big tournaments in the same place is definitely on the right track because it definitely makes it a bit easier to control some things.”

If the tournaments can be held, there would most likely be no spectators on site — a major shift for the U.S. Open, a Grand Slam tournament that attracted more than 850,000 fans last year over three weeks.

With the U.S.T.A. set to make a decision later this month on its Grand Slam, here is a look at how officials are planning for an Open without fans.

Outdoor cafes, usually for spectators, could be converted into recreational areas for players. Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Testing

Even without fans or most stadium workers, rigorous testing would still be required at the tennis center to monitor and protect players, support staff and officials.

Stacey Allaster, the U.S.T.A.’s chief executive for professional tennis, said coronavirus testing would be required for athletes and members of their teams before they traveled to New York, perhaps on charter flights from different continents organized by the U.S.T.A. “We will insist on a pretravel health questionnaire that they meet with local physicians and local doctors, and Covid-19 tests will be required for everyone,” she said. “They will have to have been symptom-free for a certain period of time before travel and have had no known contact with anyone with Covid-19.”

Once on site, there would be daily temperature checks and health questionnaires, as well as frequent follow-up testing for the virus.


Rules and Events

U.S. Open leaders have pushed unsuccessfully in the past for in-match coaching to be allowed in the main draw — an issue that flared in 2018 when Serena Williams had a heated confrontation with a chair umpire for receiving coaching from the stands. They might finally get approval from both tours and their fellow Grand Slam tournaments in this special situation to add entertainment value for television audiences.

Wheelchair tennis is unlikely but has not been ruled out. The junior and legends events would be eliminated. There would be no ball kids, but adult ball persons would still be used to facilitate play; they would be required to wear gloves but not be allowed to handle player towels.

With players having been out of official competition since March, there has been discussion of changing the format of men’s singles matches at the U.S. Open from best-of-five sets to best-of-three sets to reduce players’ injury risk. But Allaster said that was not part of the U.S.T.A.’s current plan.


Venues

Both Arthur Ashe Stadium, the tournament’s main show court with nearly 24,000 seats, and the 14,000-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium would still be used even without fans. Both are fully wired for television and have retractable roofs that would allow for play to continue in case of rain.

With empty stands, ESPN, the tournament’s broadcaster, would need to innovate to create a compelling atmosphere, but the network has pushed hard for the Open to happen if it can be held safely.

“Out of crisis comes creativity. I’m not privy to any inside information, but I would imagine that there will be all sorts of new bells and whistles with no crowd,” said Patrick McEnroe, the former player and longtime ESPN analyst. “What about moving cameras? Or miking the players? If ever there were a time to try it, now would be it.”

The Bundesliga, the German soccer league that resumed last month without spectators on site, has used artificial crowd noise in its broadcasts to combat the emptiness.

ESPN could do the same at the Open. “Cheering can be piped in,” Allaster said. “We are learning from other sports as they go through this journey.”


Player Support

The size of tennis entourages has ballooned since the 1990s, when it was considered unusual that Pete Sampras traveled with a personal trainer, Todd Snyder. The WTA already has indicated that if its circuit resumes this year, players will be asked to come to tournaments with just one person. The U.S. Open would also reduce traveling parties. “An athlete coming with four, five, six, seven people is obviously not going to be possible,” Allaster said.


That could make for some tough choices for players who thrive on routine and ample support. “They will panic, I tell you,” said Sven Groeneveld, who previously coached Maria Sharapova and is now working with Taro Daniel. “Because all of the sudden, they will have to make a decision on should I take my agent or physiotherapist or coach?”

Donna Vekic, a Croat ranked 24th in women’s singles who was a U.S. Open quarterfinalist last year, said that she would be “OK to play without fans” but that “really the worst thing is if we can only come with one team member.”

She added, “I just don’t see how that is going to be possible and how the top players are going to accept that.”

"Cheering can be piped in,” said Stacey Allaster, the United States Tennis Association’s chief executive for professional tennis.“We are learning from other sports as they go through this journey.” Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Player Services

With fewer people accompanying them, players could spread out to avoid the close contact that is standard during Week 1 in the Open locker room and training room. Allaster said each seeded player could be offered one of Arthur Ashe Stadium’s unused hospitality suites. To avoid crowding, players will need to book times for locker room or practice court access, Allaster said. Outdoor cafes, usually reserved for spectators, could be converted into recreational areas for players. “We see them chilling out and having a coffee and having some jazz musicians there,” Allaster said.

To protect their health, players could be restricted to an official hotel, probably outside Manhattan, where they would have access to treatment, training and testing, and be transported directly to the tennis center in Queens. “Traditionally, we have not been involved in housing for the U.S. Open,” Allaster said. “We need an effective centralized housing system in place.”


Player Field

Despite speculation among players and their agents, Allaster said the U.S.T.A. had not seriously considered reducing the size of the men’s and women’s singles draws from 128 competitors. Qualifying tournaments are likely to be scrapped and doubles competitions to be included with reduced draws of 24 teams, but no final decisions have been made.

A majority of players on both the men’s and women’s tours come from Europe. A directive from the U.S. government last month granted permission for foreign professional athletes, including tennis players, to travel to the United States for competition even if general travel bans exist. It remains unclear whether a quarantine period would be required after arrival. But it is unlikely that all of the stars would make the journey, even for the U.S. Open. Roger Federer, a five-time U.S. Open singles champion who will turn 39 in August and has four children, is a possible no-show and has expressed his lack of enthusiasm for playing without spectators. Others may be much more eager.

“I really think if we can pull this off in New York after all that has happened, it will totally be a big inspiration,” Mattek-Sands said.


(A version of this article appeared in print on June 3, 2020, Section B, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: Planning a U.S. Open Shut to Fans.)