What now for tennis in 2020?

PARIS: Wimbledon has been cancelled for the first time since World War II and no resumption of the ATP and WTA Tours is in sight until July 13 at the earliest as the coronavirus continues to cause havoc. AFP Sport looks at what happens next for tennis in 2020.

Djokovic, biggest winner or loser? Before the season went into cold storage, Novak Djokovic had captured an eighth Australian Open and was on an 18-0 winning streak since the turn of the year.

Talk was of Djokovic, now a 17-time Grand Slam title winner, going on to match his 2011 and 2015 seasons. In 2011, he built a 41-match win streak before ending the year with a 70-6 record and 10 titles, including the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open crowns.

In 2015, Djokovic won the same three Slams again out of 11 titles in a win-loss record of 82-6. After taking the 79th title of his career in Dubai on the last day of February this year, the 32-year-old proclaimed: “One of the targets is to go unbeaten the whole season. I’m not kidding.”

However, with the French Open, which he has won once, and Wimbledon, where he was the defending champion, respectively postponed and scrapped, has his bubble burst? “The big loser is Djokovic,” former world number one and seven-time major winner Mats Wilander told L’Equipe.

“He hasn’t lost this year yet, but this virus has stopped him in his tracks.” Will there be any more tennis at all in 2020? After Wimbledon was cancelled for the first time in 75 years on Wednesday, All England Club chief Richard Lewis was hoping for the best but fearing the worst. “I don’t think it’s unrealistic to say that there may be no more tennis this year,” he said.

The clay-court and grass-court seasons have already been binned. In all, 21 tournaments on both tours have been affected. The rescheduled French Open has been shoehorned into September-October, starting just a week after the US Open final in New York. Two different continents; two radically different surfaces.

Also, a rebooted Roland Garros now clashes with six ATP and WTA events, some of which form part of the lucrative and high-profile Asian hard-court swing. The Laver Cup in Boston, where Roger Federer is likely to feature, is another direct rival to the Paris showpiece.

Meanwhile, tennis players low in ranking are facing a financial crunch. “Players lower ranked than 250 will not be able to buy food in two-three weeks’ time,” warned Georgia’s world number 371 Sofia Shapatava.

She has organised a petition calling on the ITF to provide a financial safety net for the hundreds who toil in second and third-tier events. But she is not optimistic the ITF will look favourably on her plea. “I honestly don’t think so,” she told AFP.