What if Roger Federer's big winner in the tennis pandemonium was? Operated on February 19 of the right knee, the Swiss had in the wake announced his forced withdrawal from the circuit until the end of the clay court season. For a small part, the unprecedented decision of ATP, which announced on Thursday March 12 that it would suspend its tournaments for six weeks, until April 26, due to the coronavirus pandemic, would almost sound like a sign of providence. "After the recent cancellation of Indian Wells, the affected tournaments (by cancellation decided Thursday) are Miami, Houston, Marrakech, Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Budapest ", the court said in a statement.
The ITF, which manages the male and female secondary circuits, declared a truce until April 20. With certain tournaments canceled, others not, and scenarios sometimes veering to the gruesome, this radical option had become inevitable. Wednesday, German and French players had to leave the Noursoultan Challenger (Astana) in a hurry under pain of being placed in quarantine, the government of Kazakhstan having "blacklisted" the nationals of the two countries because of Covid-19.
"This break is the best solution because without it, it would have generated too much inequality on the circuit, believes Corentin Denolly, 285e World Cup, currently in Potchefstroom, South Africa, where he lost in the first round of a Challenger (the second tennis division). The week of March 23, I had to go to Rotterdam but the tournament was canceled. There was also a tournament in Florida that same week, except that currently all Europeans are prohibited from traveling to the United States. At least, there, we are all in the same boat, it is not only the players of the Top 100 who are concerned. "
Lost or frozen ranking points?
Tennis has the specificity that players are microentrepreneurs whose income depends on their results. If the stars of the circuit can afford not to earn money on the court for six weeks, the more modest do not have this luxury, besides that they generally can not count on revenues linked to the sponsors.
“We are very annoyed because we cannot do our job. We are on our own. From a financial point of view, six weeks in a season, for us, it's long, it makes us lose a lot of money ", testifies Julie Gervais, 409e world. The 28-year-old, who says she is less affected than others because she still lives with her parents, estimates that the shortfall for this period amounts to thousands of euros. "We, already at the level of endowments, the sums are insignificant compared to those of the Top 100. When we win a tournament endowed with 25,000 dollars, in reality, we only win 3,000 euros, and again, after that we have to take away all the charges, the ancillary costs for the week… The Top 100, they don't have to pay that, they benefit from a lot of help that we don't have at our level. "
Corentin Denolly is a licensee at the Tennis Club of Paris and pays for his training structure by the year, but unlike many subscribers to the secondary circuit, he is lucky that his coach is paid by the club. The 22-year-old shows himself to be a philosopher: "I'm going to have daily expenses like paying the rent for my apartment, but it's like a month of December when we all do our land preparation. Well there, we will do a six-week land preparation in March-April. "
Whether they are the players on the main circuit or the tennis galley slaves, the main question which now torments them concerns the classification. What about the points acquired last year over this period? Will they be lost or frozen? ATP said on Thursday it was reflecting on the matter. "We wonder how the points will be redistributed, how it will be for the players who had points to defend, if the ATP will make an effort financially because we are unemployed. Of course, we are not employees of ATP but we are still part of an association … ", sums up Corentin Denolly.
"Apart from training, not much to do"
The bodies of the secondary and female circuits should also quickly decide. "Aside from leaving us the points we won last year I don't know … it's a situation that never happened, underlines, fatalist, Vinciane Rémy, classified beyond the 1000e square. And then, tell yourself that we will not be able to progress for two months … "
The 22-year-old woman had to go to Tunisia to compete in Futures tournaments (the 3e division) the weeks of March 16 and 23, then in Corsica and Portugal. She hoped that the French tournaments of the national circuit of major tournaments (CNGT), which are not part of the WTA or ITF circuits, would be maintained. Las, Friday March 13, the executive committee of the French Tennis Federation has decided to suspend "Of all the competitions managed by the officials of the Federation, its leagues, its committees and its clubs".
Vinciane Rémy, like her galley companions, now has another fear, and she anticipates: “When the tournaments start to start again, the levels will be very strong. If it resumes in early May, everyone will want to restart on this date, and for those who are at the bottom of the ranking, it will be impossible to play. " What does she plan to do to occupy these six weeks? "Other than training, I don't think there will be much to do, especially since we are not insured for that. "
Corentin Denolly, he already has his little idea to take advantage of this forced vacation. "With seven or eight French players with me in South Africa, we thought we were going on a week-long safari. We said it while messing around but we’re still thinking about it. Going back to France and not being able to do anything, what's the point? "
