Ask tennis fans to name a hero and Roger Federer will be at the top of the list. But the Swiss star recently took time to thank heroes from a more important field: frontline healthcare workers risking their lives to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Christianne Calderon is a nurse practitioner at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where she has been on the frontlines battling against the coronavirus. ESPN recently gathered some of the world’s best athletes, who gave their thanks to Calderon, including Federer.

“You are the hero.” ?

The moment @rogerfederer surprised a health worker in New York with a message of support!

?: @ESPNtenis #COVID19pic.twitter.com/C31KidJbO3

— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 15, 2020

“Oh my God!” Calderon said when she saw Federer appear on a screen. “I’m shaking.”

Federer is in Switzerland, but he wanted to make sure Calderon and other healthcare workers like her know that they have fans throughout the world.

“People think we are superheroes, we the athletes,” Federer said. “But we think the same about somebody like you Christianne, you are the hero because you actually do save lives, you actually do make that difference.”

Felix Auger-Aliassime is doing his part to support Quebecois people struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The #NextGenATP Canadian announced Friday that he is donating a signed racquet from the 2018 season to support the Solidarity Challenges, which aims to provide 1.6 million meals to Quebec food banks.

Ravi de participer aux Défis Solidaires qui ont pour objectif de produire 1 600 000 repas afin de regarnir les frigos des Banques alimentaires du Québec. Ma raquette de la saison 2018 est aux enchères ! Rendez-vous au https://t.co/PAmM0uF6Ib pour participer.?? pic.twitter.com/ZkFXh51Ce8

— Félix AugerAliassime (@felixtennis) May 15, 2020

“If together we make an effort we will be able to get through these difficult times,” Auger-Aliassime said in a video supporting the auction. “Thanks to everyone for taking part in this challenge and I hope that we will be able to collect as much as we can.”

Click Here To View The Auction

The 19-year-old has shown an affinity for philanthropy, announcing in February, before the pandemic, that he would donate $5 for every point he wins this season to EduChange, partnering with CARE to support the protection and education of children in Togo.

Editor’s Note: ATPTour.com is resurfacing features to bring fans closer to their favourite players during the current suspension in tournament play. This story was originally published on 13 May 2019.

Alexander Zverev might have lost a doubles match Monday with brother Mischa Zverev at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, but he left the court with a lifetime fan.

The 2017 singles champion put away an overhead at 3-3 in the first set against Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus, bouncing the ball over the fence and into the crowd. At the next changeover, Zverev greeted the young fan whom the ball hit, checking on her and tying one of his headband’s around her forehead, leaving the youngster with a big smile on her face.

This is the cutest thing you’ll see all week…

Well played, Sascha ☺️#ibi19 pic.twitter.com/twaSEqLTV9

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 13, 2019

“I obviously hit her with an overhead, which was not on purpose,” Zverev said. “I saw she was a little bit sad, crying. Yeah, I thought that was the right thing to do, to give her a little present, cheer her up. I hope it made her day.”

It’s not the first time Zverev has made a young lifetime fan outside of his play, either. In Miami two years ago, he gave one of his headbands to a ‘Mini Sascha’ in the crowd. Last year, Zverev met with the boy again, giving him a new headband and even inviting him out to the practice court for a hit.

Watch Rome Live Online

Zverev begins his singles campaign in Rome against Italian wild card Matteo Berrettini.

Tennis players learn from an early age that it’s important to remember the score. During this period of lockdown you may not be able to be on court keeping score, but you can still build your memory skills with this fun game in the Emirates ATP Kids Hub.

Download and print the game sheets and follow the instructions below to put your memory to the test. Play with another member of your family or with a friend over video conference. If you’re really missing your tennis, treat each game as a set and play a full match!

How To Play…

• Download and print the game sheets (PDF)
• Cut out all images
• Mix up the cards
• Lay them in rows, face down
• Turn over any two cards
• If the two cards match, keep them
• If they don’t match, turn them back over
• Remember what was on each card and where it was
• Watch and remember during the other player’s turn (not applicable if you play over video conference)
• The ‘set’ is over when all the cards have been matched
• The winner of the ‘set’ is the player who has the most matches
• Play best-of-three or best-of-five sets with your opponent to determine an overall winner

Once you’ve finished playing, you may also like to enter our second Fan Essay Contest. 

For more activities, visit the Emirates ATP Kids Hub

The ATP has extended the suspension of the ATP Tour through to July 31, 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision, made in close collaboration with Tour members, means ATP events in Hamburg, Bastad, Newport, Los Cabos, Gstaad, Umag, Atlanta and Kitzbühel will not take place as scheduled. The extended suspension also applies to the ATP Challenger Tour and to men’s events on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

“Due to continued uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, we regret to announce our decision to extend the suspension of the Tour,” said Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman. “Just like tennis fans, players and tournament hosts all over the world, we share in the disappointment the Tour continues to be affected in this way. We continue to assess all of our options in an effort to resume the Tour as soon as it is safe to do so, including the feasibility of rescheduling events later in the season. As ever, the health and well-being of the tennis community and wider public remains our top priority in every decision we make.”

Tournaments taking place from August 1, 2020 onwards are still planning to proceed as per the published schedule. A further update on the ATP Tour calendar is expected in mid-June.

Arthur Reymond, a 21-year-old Frenchman, is currently the No. 589 player in the FedEx ATP Rankings. His biggest dream is to become World No. 1.

But no matter how high he climbs, Reymond will always be able to tell the story of how he built a clay court in his neighbour’s backyard during the coronavirus pandemic.

“At the beginning of the quarantine, I spoke with my father about how we can play tennis and feel the ball. We tried to find solutions, and then we talked about building a tennis court at home in the garden,” Reymond said. “We knew that our neighbour had a tennis court, and then we called him and we asked if his court is good and if we could play. He said it’s like a potato field.”

When the Reymonds, who live near Toulouse, visited their neighbour, they quickly realised that the space barely resembled a tennis court, deeming it unplayable.

“When we got home my father told me that if [I wanted] we could try to build the court,” Reymond said. “But we knew it would be hard and we didn’t have the tools to build it.”

They only had some shovels and a wheelbarrow. They made do, though, ordering 18 25-kilogram bags of clay from a local club. On the first day of construction, they built one service box. Their neigbour told them it’d be impossible to finish.

“We tried anyway, and after two weeks of a lot of work we finished the court and it was a nice result,” Reymond said. “We had to clean everything, so we took off a layer of five to 10 centimetres. There were a lot of roots, big roots, we had to take out. We didn’t have a hoe to make it flat, so we had to do different things to make it flat and then clean the surface again.”

Reymond has been training with his father for about an hour a day for a total of four weeks — two blocks of two weeks on both sides of a lengthy period of rain in France — cycling through forehands, backhands, volleys, overheads and serves. It is a full-sized court, but with less space to move outside of the lines.

“We never considered not finishing it, but at one point I thought to myself, ‘You really have to like tennis to do something like this,’” Reymond recalled. “I think if I didn’t really love tennis I wouldn’t have done [it].”

Once professional tennis resumes, Reymond hopes to move closer to the Top 100. He has only played one ATP Challenger Tour event, last year in Brest, France. However, Reymond has learned from some of the world’s best, practising with Benoit Paire, Ugo Humbert and Gregoire Barrere.

“Those were great opportunities to learn a lot of things about preparation, the concentration needed, and how to be a professional,” Reymond said.

Off the court, Reymond has plenty of passions outside of tennis. He enjoys fishing, playing the guitar, and repairing old cars and motorbikes, and he has kept busy during quarantine.

“I’m lucky because I have a garden at home, which helps a lot. We were setting goals and the biggest goal was to build the court,” Reymond said. “I also repaired a car and a motorbike during this time, so time has been flying by.”

Would Reymond build a tennis court again? He’s not sure. But Reymond is happy with this one, and it’s certainly a memory he’ll keep for a long time.

“It will be funny,” Reymond said. “But [it’s] a good story.”

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi has played doubles against Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic during his career. But now, the legends are helping Qureshi as he continues his efforts to ensure that Pakistanis in need receive ration bags during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Qureshi has launched a charity auction, Stars Against Hunger, in conjunction with his foundation, Stop War Start Tennis, to raise funds to provide as many ration bags as possible for daily workers who have been unable to work during these tough times. 

“As an athlete, as a sportsman, I feel like tennis has given me so much, and it’s a way of me giving back to the communities,” Qureshi said. “I’ve been all over the world, there are so many people who have touched my heart, and that’s why I feel like helping everybody I can in any way possible.”

Learn More About The Auction

Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Qureshi have all won the ATP’s Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year Award. The Pakistani admires all the work the legends do off the court.

“Every single item is going to be very close to my heart. It’s going to go a long way for me to raise funds here in Pakistan. There’s a huge population that loves tennis. These guys are legends here. Everybody loves each and every one of them,” Qureshi said. “They’re unbelievable guys and human beings. None of them hesitated. The second I asked them if I can use any kind of memorabilia from them, they were more than happy to send it to me. I can’t thank them enough… Pakistan can’t thank you guys enough.”

Other players who have contributed are reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, 2017 Nitto ATP Finals winner Grigor Dimitrov, World No. 5 Daniil Medvedev and WTA star Sania Mirza.

Athletes from other sports who have donated memorablia for the auction are boxer Amir Khan, field hockey player Shahbaz Ahmed, squash player Jahangir Khan and cricketers Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram and Shoaib Malik.

In order to bid on the items, you must send an email to the address at the bottom of the Stars Against Hunger website. According to Qureshi, the auction will end on 24 May. You also can donate directly to Qureshi’s cause here.

Qureshi, who himself has delivered rations, says the bags include flour, rice, oil, grains, tea, milk and soap, and can feed a family of five. One ration bag costs 3,500 rupees, or approximately $45. The campaign has already supported more than 2,000 families in Pakistan.