World No.26 Alex de Minaur has admitted that he is wary about a quick return to professional tennis due to the physical toll it could take on player’s.
An announcement regarding what will happen with the remainder of the 2020 season is expected later this month with the US open likely to get underway on August 31st. All professional tennis tournaments have been either suspended or cancelled since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the tennis governing bodies are trying to find a way to restart the Tour as soon as possible in order to start providing prize money to players.
However, de Minaur has voiced his opposition against the idea of staging a quick return to competitive tennis. Speaking to The First Serve, the 21-year-old fears that such an approach could increase the chances of injury. The Australian struggled with an abdominal injury earlier this year, which forced him to miss his home grand slam in Melbourne.
“We could end up with a lot of players getting injured, that’s my only concern,” Tennis Australia quoted de Minaur as saying.
“It’s all about finding a healthy balance. I can guarantee you that every single tennis player wants to get back out there and start competing again, but you’ve also got to look at the ways the players are going to be treated, their bodies.”
“At the end of the day you can do all the training in the world, put your body through five-hour training sessions each day but nothing compares to competition. The nerves, the stress, everything that happens in a match … that’s going to take a toll on the body.”
The comments come on the eve of what is set to be a crucial meeting between the players and the ATP. Last week Marca newspaper reported that the ATP have invited everybody from the Tour to attend a zoom meeting tomorrow where they are likely to outline their future plans for 2020. The meeting were meant to be kept confidential and it is unknown if any details will be made public.
De Minaur does have the advantage of having had some recent match play already under his belt. Over the weekend he took part in the Valencia Tennis Challenge, which was played in the region where he has been spending lockdown. During the event he scored straight sets wins over Pablo Carreno Busta and Pablo Andujar. However, his final clash with Roberto Bautista Agut was cancelled due to bad weather.
“It was great actually. Even though it was technically just practice matches, I used it as an opportunity to get back into competing and get those competitive juices flowing again,” he said.
“It felt good to be back on the court, that’s for sure.”
So far in his career, De Minaur has won 3 ATP titles and earned more than $3.8 million in prize money. He is currently Australia’s highest ranked player on the ATP Tour.
