Australian Open – At the Australian Open, injuries have been increasing in recent days. Novak Djokovic and Co. blame the long quarantine. And they are now also questioning the rest of the ATP Tour.
While the tennis world is puzzling over the type and severity of Novak Djokovic’s injury, the defending champion and former president of the ATP players’ council opened a new barrel. “There are just too many injuries,” said the Serb. “This shows what consequences the quarantine has on the body.” The facts prove Djokovic right.
While injuries in tennis usually pile up at the end of a long year or one or the other player starts and gives up in the first round, they happen at this Australian Open towards the end of the tournament and with the top athletes. In the round of 16, three seeded players either didn’t start at all (Matteo Berrettini), gave up (Casper Ruud) or lost the last set with great pain 0: 6 (Dominic Thiem). Before that, the US Open semi-finalist Pablo Carreño Busta had given up in the 3rd round at 0: 6, 0: 1, in the quarter-finals Grigor Dimitrov could hardly stand upright after his defeat. Rafael Nadal complained of back pain even before the start of the tournament, Djokovic seems sometimes more, sometimes less. This accumulation of physical problems is striking, especially at the beginning of the season when the players should still be fresh after the winter break.
Even though most of them were allowed to exercise outside of their hotel room for a few hours a day during their 14-day quarantine in Australia, the lack of freedom of movement shows up as a problem for fitness. Djokovic is therefore very worried. “If we had to be quarantined before other tournaments, this is not feasible from my point of view,” said the world number 1 after his semi-final entry. And he spoke to many of his colleagues and they told him the same thing.
In the coming week, three ATP tournaments in the (lowest) 250 category are on the program at three different corners of the world: Cordoba in Argentina, Montpellier in southern France and Singapore. Then it’s on to Rotterdam, Buenos Aires and Qatar, where Roger Federer also wants to make his comeback from March 8th. At the moment no further quarantines are planned, but with the appearance of the mutations, entry restrictions have increased massively again, as the footballers, especially from England, have to find out in the European Cup this week.
Travel is a big problem
The Serb receives support from Alexander Zverev, who was eliminated in the quarter-finals against Djokovic. “We can’t be a traveling circus at the moment, it’s that simple,” said the German. Depending on the passport someone has, they may not be able to travel to some places at all at the moment. “I know that the South Americans in particular have big problems.” For the Australian Open, with its big prize money for first-round losers (around 70,000 francs), the quarantine was still worth it, emphasizes Djokovic, but at other tournaments the prize money has been significantly reduced compared to other years.
So he brings a “bubble” like the one the NBA had in Florida last fall. “You choose a location, play on a surface for three or four weeks, take a break, then continue again.” You could change the advertising boards and lettering on the court. At the moment, the ATP is planning an almost normal calendar with Miami at the end of March and the traditional sand tournaments in Europe.
Quite a few hooks
Djokovic’s plan could look something like this: three weeks in the Arab world, for example in Doha or Dubai, then a few tournaments in Florida and three weeks before the French Open in a place on clay in Europe. So far so good. But the plan also has a lot of catches.
Just one tournament a week would only be of any use to the players who are also qualified. What are players just outside the top 100 like Henri Laaksonen doing? Do the sponsors of a tournament in Acapulco or Marseille stay with us even if the game is played in Dubai instead? How does the world rankings work if the same tournaments are not played on the same surfaces as in the year (or two years) before? What happens in a positive corona case in such a bubble? Does that mean everyone has to be quarantined again?
Almost everyone sees the same as Djokovic that such a performance, if it lasts a week or more, is not feasible again for the tennis circus. The solutions to the problem are less clear. As long as there is no nationwide vaccination and most of the entry restrictions are lifted, the global tennis circus will remain an extremely fragile entity.
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