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No Racquet, No Problem For Novak: Djokovic's Epic Pan Rally At Home

  • Posted: Mar 31, 2020

No Racquet, No Problem For Novak: Djokovic’s Epic Pan Rally At Home

Djokovic finds a new way to display #TennisAtHome

Novak Djokovic is taking #TennisAtHome to a whole new level.

The World No. 1 long ago proved himself a master with a tennis racquet. But Tuesday on social media, the Serbian showed he is not too shabby with a pan, either. 

Tennis At Home | How ATP Players Make The Most Of Stay At Home

In addition to encouraging fans to stay at home to help stop the spread of coronavirus, Djokovic and his wife, Jelena Djokovic, previously announced that that they will donate €1 million through the Novak Djokovic Foundation for the purchase of ventilators and medical equipment to support hospitals and other medical institutions in their battle against coronavirus in Serbia.

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“The fight is not easy, numbers are not pleasant, but I am convinced that we will manage to make it out of this stronger than before,” Novak told local media according to his foundation. “It is important to remain united in this fight, to help each other, so we can defeat this virus faster and easier. We would like to use this opportunity to invite everyone else to join us and help numerous families and people who need help to survive and get healthy again.”

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Uncovered: The Best Seasons Of Novak Djokovic's Career

  • Posted: Mar 31, 2020

Uncovered: The Best Seasons Of Novak Djokovic’s Career

ATP Uncovered presented by Peugeot focusses on the Serbian’s 2011 and 2015 campaigns

After winning the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships one month ago to move to 18-0 in 2020, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic pondered the idea of a perfect season.

“One of the targets is to go unbeaten the whole season,” Djokovic said on court, cracking a laugh. “No, I’m kidding. I’m not kidding, actually.”

Although Djokovic wasn’t serious about going a full season without a loss, the Serbian has completed some of the best campaigns in recent memory, as detailed by ATP Uncovered presented by Peugeot.

Watch over 165 classic ATP Tour matches from the 90s

2011
Win-Loss Record: 70-6
Titles: 10
Grand Slam Titles: 3

Djokovic began the 2011 season as the No. 3 player in the FedEx ATP Rankings. The Serbian had climbed as high as World No. 2, but never to the top of tennis’ mountain. That all changed thanks to one of the best starts to a season in history, which led him to not only reach World No. 1 for the first time, but to finish the year there.

Djokovic won his first 41 matches of 2011, with 31 of those victories coming in straight sets. Thirteen of those triumphs during that stretch were against Top 10 opposition.

Perhaps what was most impressive was the Serbian’s efforts against Rafael Nadal. He won all six of his ATP Head2Head clashes against the Spaniard in 2011, with all of those meetings coming in finals.

Djokovic had lifted one Grand Slam trophy and reached two finals prior to this season, but he earned three major crowns, triumphing at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, claiming 10 tour-level titles for the year.

What They Said
Pete Sampras: “It was quite a year for Novak Djokovic. Incredible what he was able to do. A transformation in his head has turned [him] into this incredible athlete who mentally has sort of figured it out.”

Andre Agassi: “Really one of the great years of all-time in our sport.”

Tennis At Home | How ATP Players Make The Most Of Stay At Home

2015
Win-Loss Record: 82-6
Titles: 11
Grand Slam Titles: 3

Djokovic set the bar high with his 2011 season, but he won even more matches in 2015. His 82 tour-level victories are more than he has earned in any other campaign.

It wasn’t just that he won a lot, but whom he defeated to do so. Djokovic earned 31 Top 10 wins in 2015, including a combined 15 victories against Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

Djokovic lifted a career-high 11 tour-level trophies and reached a single-season record 15 straight finals to end the year, the most since Federer’s 17 straight finals in 2005-06. He won a record six ATP Masters 1000 titles, reaching the championship round at eight of the nine events at that level in 2015.

After only winning one Grand Slam in 2014, the Serbian earned three major titles, emerging victorious at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. He became the third man to contest all four major finals in a single year during the Open Era (also Laver in 1969 and Federer in 2006, 2007 and 2009).

He then ended the season in style, becoming the first player to win four consecutive Nitto ATP Finals titles, finishing year-end No. 1 for the fourth time in five years.

What They Said
John McEnroe: “[It’s amazing] how consistent Novak has been at such a high level.”

Bjorn Borg: “I think what Djokovic did is one of the better seasons a player has ever had.”

Stan Smith: “Djokovic is playing at a level at which nobody could really get a chink in the armour.”

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Breakthrough: Nishikori Remembers First Title At 2008 Delray Beach

  • Posted: Mar 31, 2020

My First Title: Nishikori Remembers 2008 Delray Beach

ATPWorldTour.com talks exclusively to Kei Nishikori on the 10th anniversary of his first ATP World Tour title at 2008 Delray Beach

Kei Nishikori didn’t want to play the 2008 Delray Beach Open for fear of being outclassed, even embarrassed. At 18 years of age, he didn’t think he belonged at tour-level at all.

Two weeks earlier, the Japanese teenager had lost in the third round of qualifying at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Dallas against KJ Hippensteel, who won a single tour-level match in his career. So how would Nishikori, World No. 244, make it through qualifying at an ATP World Tour event?

“I told my coach I didn’t want to play in Delray because it’s a different level and [there’s] no way I’m going to win those tournaments,” Nishikori told ATPWorldTour.com. “But my coach pushed me to play.”

It’s a good thing Nishikori listened to his coach, Glenn Weiner. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ten years ago this week, Nishikori would go on one of the most memorable runs at an ATP World Tour event in recent memory. The teenager won eight matches — saving 12 of 12 break points faced in a three-set second-round win against Amer Delic, saving four match points in the semi-finals against Sam Querrey, and finally, shocking World No. 12 James Blake 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to win his first ATP World Tour crown.

“I remember in my head I thought, ‘Well, James is probably going to win this tournament’,” Querrey said, recalling his loss.

“I thought, ‘Oh, wow. This is a big opportunity. I’m getting to play a qualifier in the final’,” Blake remembered.

But instead, Nishikori became the first Japanese tour-level titlist since Shuzo Matsuoka at 1992 Seoul and the youngest player to win a title, period, since former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt captured 1998 Adelaide as a 16-year-old.

Youngest ATP World Tour Champions Since 2000

 Player  Event  Age
 Kei Nishikori  2008 Delray Beach  18 years, 1 month, 19 days
 Rafael Nadal  2004 Sopot  18 years, 2 months, 12 days
 Andy Roddick  2001 Atlanta  18 years, 7 months, 30 days
 Andy Murray  2006 San Jose  18 years, 9 months, 4 days
 Lleyton Hewitt  2000 Adelaide  18 years, 10 months, 23 days

‘Project 45’ — the mission touting Nishikori’s pursuit of Matsuoka’s Japanese-best mark of No. 46 in the ATP Rankings, was underway. Yet, before the week started, the spotlight seemed distant.

“At that time, it was really hard to believe [in myself],” Nishikori admitted. “I was losing to guys ranked like 300 and I wasn’t playing well. I don’t know what happened.”

Well, it certainly worked. Knowing what we know today — Nishikori has ascended as high as No. 4 in the ATP Rankings, won 11 tour-level titles and earned 32 Top 10 victories — it is easy to look back and understand how the superstar triumphed that week in Delray Beach. But it was not that obvious a decade ago.

“That was amazing, amazing for sure,” said Dante Bottini, Nishikori’s coach since December 2010, who worked at the IMG Academy (where Nishikori has trained since coming to the United States at 13) starting in 2007. “Being such a young kid, I remember he wasn’t that big. He was very skinny, playing with all these big guys. That was very, very impressive. Very impressve.”

Becoming the first Japanese player since Matsuoka (1995 Beijing) to advance to a tour-level semi-final was worthy of commendation. But Nishikori faced four match points against Querrey. The magical run, it seemed, was one big shot from coming to an end.

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Somehow, Nishikori survived.

“I was the Challenger guy,” Nishikori said. “He was a much better player. I had no pressure and I was just playing with nothing to lose, so I think I was more free to play those points and maybe I had more guts to play aggressively.”

“He came out and beat James the next day. A little bit of a shock then, but now looking back, it wasn’t so much of a shock,” Querrey said. “He’s had such a great career.”

The thing is, at that point, Nishikori never believed he would beat Blake. And neither did the top seed.

“I’d seen a little bit of the match. But I knew the way I was playing, I felt like I could be overpowering. I would be able to be aggressive,” Blake said. “And also, [I thought] he might be nervous. It was his first final.”

And whether it was because of nerves or not, Nishikori still did not believe he would win while serving at 5-4, 40/0 in the third set, three championship points on his racquet. Blake was a full-fledged star. Nishikori was just a teenager, playing someone whom he had only watched on television.

“I wasn’t believing that I could win the match. I was still thinking I might lose this game, even though I had match points,” Nishikori said. “It was really tough to believe in myself, especially against James, who was almost Top 10. And I was watching him on TV at that time, so it wasn’t easy.”

A Blake forehand error sealed the up-and-comer’s victory — Nishikori was no longer ‘The Challenger Guy’.

“I played pretty well and he just beat me,” Blake said. “I remember coming back and my brother and my coach were there and my brother said, ‘That kid is going to be really, really good’.

“Normally my brother might make an excuse like, ‘Oh, you had a rough day’ or whatever. He just said, ‘That kid is going to be good. You didn’t do anything wrong today’,” Blake remembered. “I felt like that was the case and it was so surprising to have a qualifier ranked 200 and something in the world come in and just outplay me and beat me when I was near the Top 10 in the world.”

Later that year, the teenager would become the first Japanese player to reach the fourth round at the US Open since Jiro Yamagishi in 1937. By the end of 2008, Nishikori would soar to No. 63 in the world. And while injuries set him back, the right-hander would break Matsuoka’s record ATP Ranking for a Japanese player at 2011 Shanghai.

But all of that success stems from one magical week in Delray Beach, Florida. Not bad for a guy who didn’t want to be there, saying he’d “rather play a Challenger and win a couple matches”.

“I was coming from almost nothing before [Delray Beach],” Nishikori said. “That was the start of my career.”

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Butch's Notebook: Buchholz Looks Back On Agassi, Sampras & Miami Memories

  • Posted: Mar 31, 2020

Butch’s Notebook: Buchholz Looks Back On Agassi, Sampras & Miami Memories

During the COVID-19 global pandemic, ATPTour.com talks to Miami Open presented by Itau founder and former player Butch Buchholz

It is one of the sport’s crown jewels, first conceptualised more than 50 years ago by Earl Butch Buchholz, who realised that running a two-week tennis tournament for men and women — now named the Miami Open presented by Itau — was part of the entertainment business. When Buchholz and his younger brother, Cliff Buchholz, swept into southern Florida in 1987, after briefly holding the tournament at Delray Beach (1985) and Boca West (1986), all of their Mid-Western charm, experience and determination was needed to permanently establish a home on the beautiful island of Key Biscayne. Butch Buchholz told ATPTour.com, “I jokingly said [to my brother], ‘If things go wrong it’s your fault. If they are good, I did it.’”

Initially, amidst a five-year court battle to build a 14,000-seat stadium, the organisers — Butch, as Tournament Chairman to 2010, and Cliff, as Tournament Director to 2003 — had to deal with the second-coldest day recorded in Florida and plenty of hurricanes. Notably, the aftermath of 1992 Hurricane Andrew, one of the worst in Florida’s history, “when hundreds of fish landed on the courts” and set back their preparations for 1993, when they had to deal with a different problem. “When the stadium court was still under construction, we had to move the temporary stadium court all the way down to the end of the property,” remembers Butch Buchholz, who had initially built a $1 million 10,000-square-foot clubhouse in 1989 at Crandon Park.

“For some reason, to this day, we still don’t know why. But the court started breaking up on the final day. There was talk about the soil being bad and moisture being there. Even the heat of the day, but, for sure, it was a major crisis. At nine o’clock in the morning the court was unplayable, but when we were ready to go on air for the final [MaliVai Washington versus Pete Sampras], by a miracle, the court stuck together. It didn’t come apart and we were able to play on it. Frank Froehling, who [passed away in January 2020 and] was in the court construction business, felt that when the temporary court was built down at the end of the property, that there was probably so much moisture in there, that it was likely coming up. We also had the second-coldest day recorded in Florida in the first year, whereas the second week [of the tournament] always got hot.”

A small, but vocal section of the local community had been opposed to the development of a $20 million octagonal-shaped stadium, on the site of a former rubbish dump. The politics became fierce and the Buchholz brothers considered another venue switch. “Everyone was hopeful that we could build a stadium, but the Key Biscayne residents were worried we’d be holding rock concerts, tractor pulls and mud wrestling there,” remembers Buchholz, who had originally viewed Flamingo Park, Tropical Park and Amelia Earhart Park for Miami’s tournament site. “The people against the stadium accused us, and the county [Miami-Dade], of something we weren’t going to do. It took almost five years in court, but we won the right to build the stadium and have the tournament. But then there were all sorts of conditions, which we did not support, when the county did the contract with the prominent Matheson family. The stadium [once built] really did change the tournament.”

Miami 1994 stadium court

Buchholz’s proudest achievement, the stadium, which officially hosted its first tennis match on 11 March 1994 (one year later than planned), boasted a meditation room, hairdresser’s salon and changing rooms replete with lockers made of oak, and personalised with brass name plates. “We had the idea to invite 300,000 people to our wedding and we wanted everyone to have a good time: feed them, provide gifts [the merchandise] and enjoy their time,” says Buchholz.

“The stadium was a great office. I had the vision of the court backing, when I was playing in the 1960s. I wanted a nine-foot wall, so players didn’t have to hit a volley out of someone’s white shirt, the court was perfectly level, and television cameras were recessed into the ground. The building and the philosophy of the stadium changed everything. We gave half of the building to fans and sponsors, [and the other] half of the building to players and press. Everyone was a partner in this event. There was an area where players could sit up in dining and look out across the court. The New York Times, The Times of London were in the same seating area as a sponsor who had paid $6 million.”

Of course, the 1994 tournament didn’t go without a hitch. On the morning of the singles final, Sampras called to say he wouldn’t be able to face Andre Agassi that afternoon. Buchholz remembers telling Sampras, “If we get a doctor, and if the doctor can get you to a point where you can play, would you?’ Andre then agreed to delay the match. Pete’s doctor said, ‘If we get some IVs into him, he’ll be okay in a few hours’. I think television was due to start at 12 noon for a 1pm final start. We ended up starting around 3pm and it ended up that Pete beat him [5-7, 6-3, 6-3]. We were just happy to have a match. Andre would beat Pete the next year in a third set tie-break [3-6, 6-2, 7-6(3)], which was a great match.

“In 1996, when Goran Ivanisevic retired after three games of the final due to waking up with a stiff neck, Andre took the microphone out of my hand and told the fans, ‘This sort of thing happens…’ It’s not easy standing in front of 14,000 people saying they won’t play. At that point, I then went to the [Miami-Dade] county and asked if I could borrow their police helicopter and get Jim Courier, who was on Fisher Island [14 miles away], to play an exhibition match. I got Courier to come over and play one set against Andre, but then it poured with rain.”

By the mid 1990s, working at the Crandon Park Tennis Center had become a family affair. Buchholz had moved to Miami and was part of the fabric of the community. His son and wife worked at the tournament, which welcomed 18,000 spectators each day through the gates. His brother, Cliff, never relocated, but dealt with operations for 18 years as Tournament Director of the Miami Open presented by Itau — via title sponsorship from Lipton (1985-1999), Ericsson (2000-2001), NASDAQ-100 (2002-2006) and Sony Ericsson (2007-2014). Today the event is presented by Itaú, the largest privately owned bank in Latin America. Assisted by up to 1,200 volunteers, the tournament was initially dubbed, ‘Winter Wimbledon’ and, for the first five years, as the ‘South American Open’, playing to Miami’s strong Latin ties.

In March 1998, Chilean Marcelo Rios rose to No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings after becoming the fourth of eight players to-date to complete the ‘Sunshine Double’ of BNP Paribas Open and Miami titles in the same season. Buchholz, who had also helped to create Altenis, a management company that oversaw tennis tournaments in Latin America, recalls, “What we did, we gave people coming through the gates either a Chilean flag or an American flag. That final was a bullfight, the crowds really got into it.”

Rios celebrates winning the 1998 Miami title

It had been when Buchholz was the Executive Director of the ATP in 1981 and 1982, that he envisaged the formation of a combined tournament. He eventually agreed a 15-year contract with the ATP and WTA Tours to run the event, starting in 1985. He told ATPTour.com, “I felt that the players were the last entity to have a major event, as the golfers do with the PGA Championships at Sawgrass.” But once the tennis world changed with the ‘Parking Lot Press Conference’ at the 1988 US Open, the former player adds, “We, the ATP, owned about eight events and that really struck in every tournament’s craw. They believed the ATP would protect their own events, which was not necessarily the case, but that was the perception. When the ATP pulled off the Men’s Tennis Council [1974-1989] and started their own Tour [in 1990], Hamilton Jordan, who was the chief executive of the ATP, told me, ‘Butch, we can’t own this event. It wouldn’t look right as it’s a conflict of interest. So, if you and your brother want to take it on, we’ll increase your prize money by 40 per cent and make it a 10-day event, rather than two weeks.’ That’s how my brother and I ended up with the event.”

The 79-year-old Buchholz believes it was not just the great matches and personalities, but the attention to detail and the facilities at Crandon Park Tennis Center, which saw the Miami Open presented by Itau voted by players as the ATP Masters 1000 Tournament of the Year on six occasions (2002-06 and 2008). “The big thing for us was that the top players enjoyed coming to Miami,” says Buchholz. “We treated them very well, and the big part of our success was that our fans and sponsors could trust we could get the best players. That’s a big part of ticket and sponsorship sales. We started running it as an event and not just tennis. We had entertainment. We had a big charity event before the tournament started, also ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ and ‘Beach Boys’ campaigns. Food was part of the marketing. It was about attracting the locals, but also international fans to an event, and I think we were one of the first to do so. We realised that we were in the entertainment business and a lot of other tournaments followed, with men and women together being the right decision.”

Agassi, who played in Miami for the first time as a 17-year-old in 1987, was one of the event’s greatest supporters, winning a record six titles [tied with Novak Djokovic]. Upon his 19th consecutive appearance in 2005, Buchholz paid tribute. “We did a great video in his final year,” he recalls. “It was a tribute to Andre, looking back at all the 19 years. I took him into our boardroom and it was just the two of us. I showed him the video and we both cried. Our fans always remembered great matches and personalities. Pete was a big supporter, so too Chris Evert, a Florida resident. The [Rafael] Nadal-[Roger] Federer matches of 2004 and 2005, the great five-set final. The women’s matches between Monica Seles, [Steffi] Graff, [Gabriela] Sabatini and [Jennifer] Capriati. There was also Mary Joe Fernandez, who was still in high school, the Carrollton School [in Miami], and they let all the kids come and watch her play Chris Evert in the [1988] semi-finals. They literally closed the school.”

Buchholz in Miami 

Buchholz stepped down as Tournament Chairman in March 2010, six months shy of his 70th birthday. His last duty was to present the 2010 champion Andy Roddick with the Butch Buchholz Trophy. It was a rich reward for 25 years of service to the tournament.  

In 2019, the prestigious ATP Masters 1000/WTA Premier-level tournament, which had been owned by sport’s management company IMG since 2000, was held in Miami Gardens for the first time at the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins. Buchholz insists, “IMG was prepared to spend the money to bring the tournament site [at Crandon Park] back up to leading status, but wasn’t allowed to. The grounds around Key Biscayne were insufficient. [But] the Hard Rock Stadium will be great, the outer courts and the outer areas outside of the stadium are a major upgrade from Key Biscayne. I’m happy the tournament has stayed in Florida and Miami. They will have some challenging years, but it will continue to grow as the top players return to come and play. The product is very good.”

Due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, the 2020 Miami Open presented by Itau will not proceed as scheduled.

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US Open Site To Be Converted Into Temporary Hospital

  • Posted: Mar 31, 2020

US Open Site To Be Converted Into Temporary Hospital

New York City continues efforts to combat COVID-19

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, home of the US Open, will be converted into a makeshift hospital as New York City strives to increase hospital capacity by 87,000 beds as the health care system is stressed by the spread of COVID-19. The immediate plan is for the beds to be used to care for non-COVID-19 patients.

Chris Widmaier, Managing Director of Corporate Communications at the United States Tennis Association, confirmed that construction to convert an indoor training area into a 350-bed medical facility is expected to begin on Tuesday. Louis Armstrong Stadium will also be converted into a commissary that prepares 25,000 meal packages each day for COVID-19 patients, medical workers and others in need.

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“We’re here to help and if our site in Queens is utilized to help New Yorkers, we’re all for it,” Widmaier said to the New York Post.

New York City is considered to be the current epicenter of the coronavirus in the U.S., with more than 38,000 of the 140,904 confirmed cases in the country as of 30 March.

Tennis At Home | How ATP Players Make The Most Of Stay At Home

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'So many bigger things in life' Swan on helping vulnerable in crisis

  • Posted: Mar 31, 2020

British tennis star Katie Swan said “there are so many bigger things in life” after her family received overwhelming responses from vulnerable people they have helped through the coronavirus crisis.

Swan is currently living in Kansas in the United States and has been helping the local community with her family.

Her mum set up an organisation and has been delivering care packages.

The garage at their home has become a storage space for essential food.

“My mum has been getting all the care packages together, organising everything into smaller sections so when the people who are helping to deliver these, it’s all set up and organised,” 21-year-old Swan told BBC Sport.

“We’re keeping our social distance and staying hygienic throughout the whole process. It’s been amazing to see how my mum’s pulled this all off. Just to see the impact it’s had on the community is so nice.”

On Sunday, they had delivered care packages to more than 135 families and Swan says her mum has received letters and phone calls from those they have helped.

“[My mum] had a woman crying down the phone to her because she just couldn’t believe how much they’ve done,” said Swan.

“You just don’t realise how much something so simple can impact their lives because they can’t support themselves at the minute.”

No professional tennis tournaments will be played anywhere in the world until at least 20 April but Swan says she is one of the “lucky” ones because Kansas is yet to go into lockdown.

“I’ve been able to hit and I’m really lucky I’ve been able to do that because I’m definitely one of the few players in the world who is able to play tennis at the minute,” said the British number six.

“It’s a shame we’re not able to compete but it’s made we realise there are so many bigger things in life and there are people that we have to take care of.

“I’m in a privileged position at the moment because I come from a family who can support each other but there are so many people out there who can’t do that and it’s really showing during this time.

“It’s amazing that my mum was able to set this up to help people in any way we can and seeing the impact it’s had on them has been really rewarding for us.”

Swan added that “the most important thing at the moment is the health and safety of everyone in the world” amid growing concerns that Wimbledon will be postponed this summer.

“There’s nothing we can do. We just have to do our best and follow government guidelines – just stay hygienic, do our best for other people and tennis comes after all of that,” said Swan.

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Wimbledon cancellation seems inevitable as emergency meetings held

  • Posted: Mar 31, 2020

A series of emergency meetings is under way to decide whether Wimbledon can go ahead this year.

The All England Club says a final decision is yet to be made, but the cancellation of the Championships for the first time since World War Two now seems inevitable.

The Wimbledon Championships are due to run for two weeks from Monday 29 June.

The French Open has already been pushed back four months to late September because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I guess everyone’s been waiting on it,” Britain’s seven time Grand Slam doubles champion Jamie Murray told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“It’s obviously the next big event in the tennis calendar that’s still on the calendar for the moment.”

BBC Sport understands a decision to abandon this year’s grass court season is likely be made in conjunction with three governing bodies – the Lawn Tennis Association, the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association – within the next 48 hours.

  • ATP & WTA extend tennis suspension until June
  • USTA has not ruled out US Open switch

The All England Club admitted last week that a postponement would not be “without significant risk and difficulty,” and Murray says there are many practical reasons for that.

“I think for them, it’s difficult to move the tournament back because you’re running into other tournaments that are for the moment still on the schedule,” he explained.

“And also just things like daylight to host the event. Each week that passes, you get less and less light to play the tournament. And obviously they play until nine and 10 o’clock each night at Wimbledon.”

The All England Club is confident it will be able to refund ticket and debenture holders through the insurance policies it has in place.

But tennis will be denied its annual chance to showcase the sport in the UK, and to encourage people to take to the courts.

The preceding grass court tournaments in Nottingham, Birmingham, Eastbourne and at Queen’s Club in London will also be affected.

There is likely to be no professional tennis played anywhere until at least 13 July, which leaves players like Murray in the same boat as everyone else.

“I’m just at home, taking the necessary precautions, and trying to stay as active as I can,” the Scot continued.

“It’s different. We’re used to being on the road all the time, used to being in different cities every week, and you kind of become institutionalised to that.

“So even when I’m at events, come Friday, Saturday, when you’re starting to play for big prizes, your mind’s kind of like, ready to go to the next event because that’s just what you’ve been programmed to do.”

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Social Distancing In The Snow: Federer Puts On A Show

  • Posted: Mar 30, 2020

Social Distancing In The Snow: Federer Puts On A Show

The Swiss star hits a series of highlight reel shots for the fans

Playing tennis in the snow while social distancing is not an easy task. But Roger Federer made it look like a piece of cake in a video he posted on social media Monday.

Tennis At Home | How ATP Players Make The Most Of Stay At Home

Federer hit a series of tweeners and behind-the-back shots with perfect precision against a wall. The video eclipsed one million views on Twitter about two hours after it was posted.

Just last week, the 103-time tour-level champion and his wife, Mirka Federer, revealed that they donated one million Swiss Francs (USD $1.02 million) to vulnerable families in Switzerland to contribute towards the global fight against coronavirus.

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Federer, currently No. 4 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, last competed in the semi-finals of the Australian Open before undergoing right knee surgery in February. If his recent video shows anything, it’s that the 38-year-old has not lost his touch.

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Zverev Reveals Roots Of Melo Friendship In Instagram Live

  • Posted: Mar 30, 2020

Zverev Reveals Roots Of Melo Friendship In Instagram Live

German also provides message to fans about coronavirus

Dominic Thiem said last week that he’d love to quarantine with good friend and fellow Austrian Dennis Novak. In an Instagram Live on Sunday, 2018 Nitto ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev revealed that he actually is spending this time with another player: Marcelo Melo.

On paper, Melo and Zverev have little in common. The 36-year-old Brazilian turned professional the year after Zverev was born. The 22-year-old is a German singles star, while Melo has long focussed on doubles, in which he has reached the top of the FedEx ATP Doubles Rankings.

But despite Melo being 14 years older than Zverev, they are great friends, joined at the hip whenever they’re competing at the same tournament. Now they are quarantining in Florida due to coronavirus concerns. Zverev told the story — albeit tongue in cheek — of how they became friends.

“It was 2015 Rotterdam. He was in the locker room by himself. He’s always in the locker room by himself. He never had that many friends. I was this new guy, I was 18. Everybody kept warning me [about] him. I was like, ‘Nah, he looks like he’s okay,’” Zverev recalled. “I was like, ‘Hey buddy, you want to have lunch?’ He was so happy, because finally somebody wanted to become friends with him, and I took him on. Every stranded puppy needs a home, so I take care of him.”

Tennis At Home | How ATP Players Make The Most Of Stay At Home

As Zverev got a kick out of the story he was telling, Melo pulled out a picture of a young Zverev, perhaps from that lunch.

“Okay everybody saw the picture, put it away!” Zverev quickly said.

The pair took some questions from fans, including one asking whether Zverev or Melo’s doubles partner, Lukasz Kubot, hits more double faults.

“Oof, this is a very difficult question,” Zverev said. “Lately me, nobody makes more than me.”

“Don’t say that, you’re not that bad,” Melo said as they both cracked a laugh.

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Zverev also spoke about how Roger Federer was his idol, and Dwyane Wade was his favourite basketball player. But perhaps his most important thoughts came on getting through this current pandemic.

“It’s a very weird and difficult situation but I hope everybody is staying safe, I hope everybody is enjoying themselves at home,” Zverev said. “The more we follow rules now, the quicker we can go back to doing the things we love doing: watching live sports, doing fun activities and stuff like that. The more we follow the rules, the quicker the whole situation will solve itself and that’s why we don’t do anything, we don’t go out, we do nothing. We basically work out and stay at home and that’s it.”

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