Australia’s top tennis players could struggle to find adequate training venues over the coming weeks, according to former world No.1 doubles star Todd Woodbridge.
All professional tennis tournaments have been suspended until at least July and the majority of international travel have come to a standstill due to various lockdowns around the world. Meaning the likes of world No.1 Ash Barty and Nick Kyrgios will be still in their home country during the winter. Leaving many players in a difficult situation when it comes to returning to training and regaining form, according to Woodbridge.
“All of our players normally go to Europe and they go to the sunshine and they’re playing tournaments,” he told the AAP.
“So this will be a time that none of us Australian players will have ever been through – and that’s going to be the challenge once we get to that period of the year.
“What do we do for practice? Facilities by June you hope are back open but it’s winter and we don’t have a lot of indoor courts in Australia.
“All of those elements about preparation and trying to then be ready to try and be back for the tour are going to be a real challenge.”
It is still up in the air as to when the Tour will resume. At present all tournaments have been either suspended or cancelled until July 13th. Although it is possible that the suspension will be expanded. On Saturday the WTA Rogers Cup pulled the plug on their 2020 tournament in accordance with local government policy despite not being scheduled to take place until August.
The uncertainty has placed pressure on the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and their hopes of hosting the US Open. It has been reported that they are looking at numerous plans, including the possibility of playing matches behind closed doors. It is understood that unlike Wimbledon, the grand slam doesn’t have an insurance policy that protects them against infectious disease. Meaning that the cancellation of the tournament would come at a huge financial cost.
In light of the unique situation, Woodbridge is hoping that the break in play will benefit some players. Although he admits that others will also suffer as a result.
“This is a unique period for all of our athletes. For some of them this will be a really important break if you’re in the middle or the back half of your career,” he said.
“It’s actually not a bad thing to re-energise yourself and become more motivated and really give you that drive to finish your career off well.
“For the younger ones, though, it is really difficult to know how they’ll handle it.
“They’ll be thinking, ‘OK, I’ve lost a year of my transition of trying to get to that tour level and how am I going to be able to get to that? When does that start again?
“So many questions really.”
Australia currently has eight singles players in the top 100 with five of those being on the men’s Tour.
