With tennis returning to Wimbledon on Monday, the only thing that will be completely clear about the sport's re-entry from the pandemic is the players will donate to the All England Club over the next two weeks. The game is in the midst of an edgy transition of its own. Like restaurants, schools, supermarkets and the culture at large, tennis remains precarious in a post-pandemic world - even the return of Wimbledon is a welcome event.
After Wimbledon was canceled last year amid the pandemic, the tournament's last miss was Roger Federer serving with two match points against Novak Djokovic in the 2019 final, only for Djokovic to survive and win the championship. The United Kingdom is now one of the major hotspots for the COVID-19 delta variant, identified so far as the latest, most transmissible strain of the coronavirus - arriving concurrently with the relaxed restrictions on public gatherings.
Even if declaring a pandemic based on a drop in the death rate doesn't seem like a way to clean the coast, people are still prepared to deal with it. There was no debate about the cancellation of the tournament this year, although many players have expressed displeasure over playing the second year in front of vacant seats. The Wimbledon footprint is compact, the number of fans exceeding the legendary weirdness of the field, but the tournament requires proof of full vaccination or a negative test within 48 hours. Despite erratic vaccination rates and booms in the UK, India and South America, capacity for the Wimbledon fortnight will be limited to 50% until the final, when it will be increased to 100% for both men's and women's title matches.
Europe's football championships are being played at varying capacities around the continent – a strategy that feels premature for tennis, a sport unlike soccer, which is often played indoors and in cramped quarters. The decision to play or participate as a spectator is as emotional as it is scientific, and what the world has endured in the shadow of 4 million deaths worldwide at some point should be investigated rather than politicized.
At the start of 2020, French magician Gael Monfils was enjoying his finest start to a season in years - 16-3 with two titles, and only lost to top-5 players Dominic Thiem and Djokovic - but Monfils barely Have won one match since the pandemic began. Monfils was 0-4 after the restart in 2020, and he is 2-11 on aggregate. There is a difference between impact and damage. The effects of the pandemic have been relatively clear for the past 16 months. It would take years to calculate the loss. One of the best reasons to buy tickets to any event, Monfils' post-career resume should be instructive. Monfils, Thiem and Benoit paire have all expressed unease navigating pandemic tennis - and the damage each sport has suffered. The mental health of the players is not limited to the interview room alone.
It's been four weeks since Naomi Osaka was ruled out of the French Open after she refused to attend postmatch news conferences. Following a sharp reaction from the Grand Slam board to her decision - it threatened her with daily fines and suspensions from not only Roland-Garros but all four tennis majors - Wimbledon officials announced they would include Osaka in a dialogue for her. had arrived for. participation. His next correspondence with Osaka was to withdraw his name from the tournament.
Osaka's return from Roland-Garros sparked a conversation about the mental health of athletes and was directed toward the historic and nonstop battle between the press and athletes, where the real battle lies: the harsh and unnecessary of the Grand Slam board. reaction. But a month later, Osaka's battle has largely become her own. If there exists a major movement supporting their concerns, it is currently a silent one. Virtually no player has suggested the need for the kinds of reforms she seemed to be advocating for, and has now missed the last two major tournaments – a setback for events, as a championship player, marquee. Fans who come for the draw and watch their game. The tournament played with Osaka is better.
She is the current champion of the upcoming US Open, the event in which she became a part of the athlete movement against police brutality. Like Djokovic, Osaka is the best hard-court player in the world, and while the tournament has taken a tough, unified stance to maintain control and appear to be just a player - and the show would resume without him The game isn't that good without its best players.
The public, at least its crazy social media component, viewed the Osaka case as a media versus player courtroom conflict when in reality the fight remains a labor struggle. Players are games.
And what will the players do with the game? Osaka's emergence in the social justice movement and the 2020 pandemic were key events in the closed tennis calendar; But the Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil-led Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) continues to shape itself as an upstart rival challenger to both the ATP and WTA as an alternative (and potentially unisex) players' union. In a potentially significant development, Djokovic said he has been talking with Serena Williams about PTPA. A tennis federation for men and women - a joint advocacy body - would be unprecedented.
However, PTPA is currently more attractive as an idea than a reality. Competition is always good; It forces institutions to be better. But for a preparatory task, PTPA is acting more like an additional problem than part of the solution. He's the undisputed best tennis player in the world, but, so far, Djokovic hasn't gained the necessary numbers of confidence to be seen as a true leader—even as he publicly ranks among the lower-ranked players. Advocating players for whom to play tennis is often financially prohibitive. A week ago, the PTPA announced an executive director and an advisory board. One of those members, Katarina Pizetlovic, has already apologized for past abusive tweets about "some high profile players". Pijtlovic mentioned "a long time many tweets", but it was just nine months ago, in a now-deleted tweet in September 2020, when he called Osaka "all fake" - hardly ancient history, and hardly The opening act can be relied upon by a body trying to convince the players.
The ATP hit back at the PTPA's announcement, reiterating that it is the sole voice of players and players partner with the business of tennis, especially as the sport moves toward a crucial vote on the 30-year strategic plan that will define the future. sport. Eager to delay the vote, Djokovic hit back on social media. ATP opened fire. The other two legends of the game, Rafael Nadal and Federer, appear to be strongly supportive of the ATP. Re-entering grass tennis will distract players and isolate themselves.
The upper leadership of the ATP has faltered over the years, and its history would not make women particularly comfortable with any association with men. It was at Wimbledon in 2013, when the men tried their best to tell the women that they were not eligible to share a tournament with them as the men settled their differences in a best of five matches in the Majors while the women played a best of three. Huh. The allegation was that women were not entitled to equal pay as they spend less time in court. French player Gilles Simon, who was then heading the ATP Player Council, weighed in as Bad Man Chauvinist; But Simon was speaking not for himself but for all the male players in his position, and during that Wimbledon – won by equal-rights champion Andy Murray – the men's players did not criticize Simon's position.
The ATP is treating the PTPA not as an ally, but as a threat, but a new federation that includes women under one umbrella would certainly attract the attention of the sport and, at least in theory, men. The silence displayed by but continued will undermine the misogyny. Women's game for the year.
The strength of the biggest tournaments is the opportunity to see the best tennis, the most tennis, Williams on one court, Djokovic on the other, and Nadal, Federer and Osaka on the other. Several years ago, there was talk of disassociating itself from men's combined events, but if the PTPA is to be truly revolutionary, there must be some stakes behind its upswing. Top female players haven't expressed much support for it or even acknowledged the PTPA for seriously campaigning for support - which is essential. Even many of the words of intrigue and support from Serena Williams' camp come not directly from her, but from her husband, Alexis Ohanian. While it's unlikely that Ohanian would advocate for PTPA without some buy-in from Serena, the best way to show the women empowered in this new venture is to hear from them directly. As a concept, a unisex union of tennis players would be a powerful move. If it wants to be seen as legitimate and doesn't want to be disrupted just for the sake of disruption, then the PTPA has a lot to prove.
Defending champion Los Angeles Lakers meekly faded from the NBA playoffs, but not before LeBron James blamed his failed title defense on leaguewide injuries during a narrowed season, a season that had been negotiated by players beforehand. As Wimbledon begins, Simona Halep (defending champion since 2019), two-time champion Petra Kvitova and world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty are all battling injuries - opening the game to criticism, NBA-style, to the French Open. Moving on: Recovery time has narrowed over the past week and players have not been given enough transition time on the quick and slippery grass surface. Nadal and Thiem, two of the top five players, have already pulled out of the tournament. Halep did just that on Friday.
Who Wimbledon will be able to rely on - and what will save it from whatever COVID-19, labor or injury is present - is the one who always saves the game in the end, and that is the competition.
Serena is searching for 24. Wimbledon is his best surface. She reached the final in 2019 after losing badly to Halep, but if there's a good way for her to win a record 24th Grand Slam singles title, she's on the grass. Williams already holds the record for the most Grand Slam titles in the Open era, and 24 would pair her with Margaret Court, and more importantly, no one to give up on her. Kvitova, Garbine Muguruza, Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber are all former Wimbledon champions in the draw. But Serena, who will turn 40 in September, is still the most dangerous on the grass, evidenced by her eight titles and big banners of trophies on what feels like every bare wall and ladder on the field. Maybe the road of 24 ends at Church Road SW19 5AE in London. The literal meaning of the address of Wimbledon is its initials.
Nadal looked tired in his Roland-Garros semi-final with Djokovic earlier this month, and those tired legs in the fourth set turned the theory that time was finally starting to break his grip in Paris into reality; And although he hasn't won Wimbledon since 2010 nor made a final since 2011, Nadal's return paves a way for Djokovic's age ahead. Federer withdrew from Paris after winning the third round match and pushed all his chips to his best surface in this tournament. A strong, anti-clockwise run from Federer, who will turn 40 in August, will be a delight, no matter who hoists the trophy. Thiem has never reached the final, but his withdrawal clears the way for Djokovic.
Once the standard of tennis, grass is now the most unique playing surface, with the shortest season and fastest play time. It's a big server paradise, but not all the big guys will even exist at all. Milos Raonic, 2016 finalist, withdrew due to a shin injury. Stefanos Tsitsipas, who held a two-set lead over Djokovic at this year's French Open but lost the championship, never reached a second week on the grass, and neither has his fellow rising star Alexander Zverev. In their major final debuts, both Zverev and Tsitsipas led two sets for Love - Zverev at the 2020 US Open on Thiem, Tsitsipas in Paris earlier this month - and lost both tournaments. When Nadal is in his 16th season with 13 Roland-Garros titles, there is still no major, completely devoid of suspense, but a Wimbledon defeat to Novak. Djokovic can level Federer and Nadal at 20 majors with a win. Three players, sixty majors. beyond belief.