“I am very pessimistic about the possibility that we could continue tennis tournaments normally,” Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal said about the coronavirus crisis impacting the future of tennis, for Essentially Sport.
Nadal has won nineteen grand slam tournaments a record twelve times- he has won at Roland Garros in the years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2017, 2018, and 2019. The tennis ace has won Wimbeldon Singles in 2008 and 2010. In 2009, he was the champion of the Australian Open. As for the US Open, 2010, 2013, 2017, and 2019 have been his years.
However, in 2020, world tennis has been completely paralyzed since early March and all tournaments have been suspended. The season was further hampered by the decision of the organizer Roland Garros to reschedule the tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic in September and the cancellation of Wimbledon.
In light of all this, Nadal decided to act in the humanitarian field in this crisis and joined Novak Djokovic and Swiss Roger Federer in an initiative to establish a fund to help lower-ranked players who were in difficulty due to the interruption of the tennis season.
His humanitarian work aside, Nadal is very pessimistic about the future of tennis. He has expressed doubt regarding the continuation of top tennis in the near future under “normal conditions” due to the pandemic of the new coronavirus.
He is yet another world tennis player showing doubts about tennis tournaments at the moment. “In tennis you have to travel every week, stay in different hotels, travel to different countries. Even if the tournaments are played without spectators in the stands, the organization of the tournament requires the participation of many people. I see a serious international professional problem at the highest level,” Nadal said.
