Will Tennis Ever Be The Same?
The wold has been turned upside down.
Normally, we are told to hustle, hustle, hustle. Now, we are told to stay home and stay inside.
People are sick. People are dying. The world economy is collapsing. The world today is vastly different than it was even 2 months ago.
Tennis is not happening. Even though this is not as concerning as many things happening around the world, tennis fans dearly miss our sport. When will it return? Where will it return? What will happen with the rankings? These are just some of our questions.
What we know
Evidently, not much. But it is reasonably safe to assume that tennis will return at some point and hopefully not too far in the future.
As the ATP/WTA Tours are leagues based on gatherings ie. tournaments the return to normality may take longer than some other things in society. Will fans be nervous about coming to tournaments and sitting close to each other? Will people risk planning travel to go see tournaments that may still get cancelled? When will world travel even be allowed again? There is so much uncertainty, but we must keep our hope.
I hope that when tennis returns, the community comes back with all the passion we have shown during this lock down. I hope that fans go out of their way to attend live tournaments, play tennis outside, and be active in the sport we love.
“This pandemic can be used as a wake up call to stop taking the amazing sport of tennis for granted.”
I want us to come out of this lock down with a new appreciation for the world tours. No more half-filled stadiums. Let’s save our money and go to tournaments if they are in reach, because we now know that nothing is guaranteed.
The Big 3
Could this pandemic do something that the top tennis players on the ATP tour have not been able to do for the last 15 years: knock the Big 3 off the top of men’s tennis? Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, and Novak Djokovic are still dominating the ATP tour, but they aren’t getting any younger. Will this layoff give the Next Gen players time to catch up on whatever they were lacking to overtake the Big 3? Probably not.
The opposite will likely happen. Since 2016 each member of the Big 3 has had an astounding return to dominance after extended time off.
Federer took 6 months off after Wimbledon 2016 with a knee injury. To return at the AO 2017 as the 17th seed with brilliant form to win the title beating his arch-nemesis (and much younger) Rafa Nadal in an epic final. He would then win Wimbledon 2017 and AO 2018 and regain the World #1 ranking as the oldest man in history to do it.
Nadal also took a couple months off in 2016 after an injury ridden year. He came back in 2017 to win 3 French Opens and 2 US Opens. By playing a more selective calendar he has turned back time on his body and found unbelievable success.
Djokovic had surgery after stopping his 2017 season at Wimbledon. He mounted an amazing comeback to find his confidence and win Wimbledon 2018 and 4 of the next 6 majors until the pandemic hit. His astonishing run of form has again put him at the top of men’s tennis.
Some time off has proven to help the Big 3 recover and come back stronger in recent memory. Expect them to do the same after this pandemic subsides.
Tennis Post-Pandemic
I hope that we will treat tennis like the gift that it is after this craziness blows over. Whenever that may be, we should go to tournements (World Tour, Challenger, Futures, junior ITFs) as much we can. The tennis community can band together to make sure that tennis stays amazing as we head into the future.
by Stephen Boughton, founder/fire starter @theslicetennis