Questions face pro tennis at start | News, Sports, Jobs

By Howard Fendrich

The Related Press

When the 2020 males’s tennis season ended on the ATP Finals, Rafael Nadal captured a standard sentiment that also holds true because the 2021 tennis season is ready to start this week.

“The world is struggling quite a bit, so we’re very fortunate that we will play tennis,” Nadal mentioned in London in November. “That’s the actual feeling that I’ve.”

After an off-and-on, pandemic-altered 12 months for the game, coronavirus questions and an ever-evolving calendar nonetheless might be key elements of the dialog as issues get going with main-draw motion as we speak on the Abu Dhabi WTA Girls’s Tennis Open, the place Sofia Kenin leads the sector, and Thursday on the ATP’s Delray Seashore Open, the place final 12 months’s champion, Reilly Opelka, withdrew, citing an injured knee.

Opelka joined a number of gamers — a bunch that features Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori and Milos Raonic — in pulling out of the hard-court event held final February and pushed to early January this time as a part of a shuffling on each skilled excursions.

The scheduling adjustments embody the beginning of the 12 months’s first main championship, the Australian Open, delayed three weeks to Feb. 8, and the joint occasion performed at Indian Wells, California — canceled final 12 months due to the COVID-19 outbreak — giving up its traditional March dates and not using a new spot for it on the schedule as of now.

There are some vital milestones within the offing for stars resembling Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams in 2021.

Nadal can break a tie with Roger Federer for probably the most Grand Slam singles titles for a person after matching him with No. 20 on the French Open in October; by March, Djokovic can surpass Federer’s document for many weeks at No. 1 within the ATP rankings; Williams is one Slam singles trophy away from No. 24, which might equal Margaret Courtroom for probably the most within the sport’s historical past.

Different tennis storylines in 2021:

HE’S BACK: Greater than 12 months can have handed between matches for the 39-year-old Federer by the point he returns from two operations on his proper knee. Federer’s agent informed The Related Press he’s aiming for late February after lacking the Australian Open for the primary time since his main-draw debut in 2000.

THE SLAMS: There have been solely three Slams in 2020, as a result of the All England Membership canceled Wimbledon for the primary time since World Warfare II. As of now, Wimbledon is scheduled for its traditional place on the calendar, starting June 28. The French Open’s begin received shifted from Could to September final 12 months and the variety of followers was severely restricted; as of now, it’s slotted for Could 23. For the Australian Open, there are lingering questions on flights, accommodations and quarantine plans for gamers and their personnel. “I’m not that excited, to be sincere. Like, I don’t need to keep in my room for 19 hours,” the Thirty ninth-ranked Opelka mentioned. “You understand, I get it; we’ve to do it. However I’m not one bit excited.”

TOKYO TIME: The 2020 Olympics, as they’ll nonetheless be referred to as, are scheduled to begin in July, and two tennis gamers representing Japan might be breakout stars: AP Feminine Athlete of the Yr Naomi Osaka and Nishikori. “The Olympics are a particular time when the world comes collectively to have fun sports activities. I’m trying ahead most to being with the athletes that had waited and skilled for over 10 years, for celebrating a really onerous 12 months (2020), and having that occur in Japan makes it that rather more particular,” Osaka wrote in an e-mail interview. “It’s a particular and delightful nation stuffed with tradition, historical past and wonder. I can’t be extra excited.”

CROWDED HOUSE: Must be fascinating to observe the younger ladies who just lately received Grand Slam titles compete for extra. That features No. 1 Ash Barty, who’s 24; No. 3 Osaka, 23; No. 4 Kenin, 21; No. 7 Bianca Andreescu, 20; No. 17 Iga Swiatek, 19.

WHO’S GOT NEXT?: There seem like extra authentic candidates for first-time main champions in males’s tennis than there have been in years. With Dominic Thiem becoming a member of the membership final 12 months on the no-spectator U.S. Open, who will be part of him? Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev all seem succesful.