Future of tennis

I don’t think normality will return for perhaps a couple of years. Other than rules from authorities, dissent from within and the threat of legal challenge will make the sport inoperable.

- international travel will be extremely difficult, meaning international tournaments will not be feasible. Even if the top guys could run a private jet to every venue we won’t have 128-strong draws, and that renders any Slam invalid
- crowds aren’t going to happen and that means the event is fundamentally changed
- the meat & drink events sustaining the lower / mid levels can not restart so players are going to pack it up, again changing the game into an exho-style one.

If I’m correct then this is going to result in a few years gap followed by a fundamentally different game with a hollowed out centre. I can imagine something where the top players put on stuff like the Laver Cup (ffs), or it just looks like the Pro circuit of the 60’s.

We always wondered when the current top 3 were going to be supplanted. In the end it took a pandemic to do it.

Rishi Sunak has announced a furlough scheme where Nadal will be awarded 80% of his predicted French Open titles until the tour returns back to normal.

bogbrush wrote:I don’t think normality will return for perhaps a couple of years. Other than rules from authorities, dissent from within and the threat of legal challenge will make the sport inoperable.

- international travel will be extremely difficult, meaning international tournaments will not be feasible. Even if the top guys could run a private jet to every venue we won’t have 128-strong draws, and that renders any Slam invalid
- crowds aren’t going to happen and that means the event is fundamentally changed
- the meat & drink events sustaining the lower / mid levels can not restart so players are going to pack it up, again changing the game into an exho-style one.

If I’m correct then this is going to result in a few years gap followed by a fundamentally different game with a hollowed out centre. I can imagine something where the top players put on stuff like the Laver Cup (ffs), or it just looks like the Pro circuit of the 60’s.

We always wondered when the current top 3 were going to be supplanted. In the end it took a pandemic to do it.

Or Cov 19 disappears from the face of earth in th enext 2 months and normaiity will resume.

In any case people need to undertand they are mortal! We cannot gp through other lockdowns like that because a virus kills 80yos!

Cui Bono

bogbrush wrote:I don’t think normality will return for perhaps a couple of years. Other than rules from authorities, dissent from within and the threat of legal challenge will make the sport inoperable.

- international travel will be extremely difficult, meaning international tournaments will not be feasible. Even if the top guys could run a private jet to every venue we won’t have 128-strong draws, and that renders any Slam invalid
- crowds aren’t going to happen and that means the event is fundamentally changed
- the meat & drink events sustaining the lower / mid levels can not restart so players are going to pack it up, again changing the game into an exho-style one.

If I’m correct then this is going to result in a few years gap followed by a fundamentally different game with a hollowed out centre. I can imagine something where the top players put on stuff like the Laver Cup (ffs), or it just looks like the Pro circuit of the 60’s.

We always wondered when the current top 3 were going to be supplanted. In the end it took a pandemic to do it.

Agree with much of this - in particular I am staggered by the amount of assumptions people are prepared to make centered on what we believe is 'normality' being somehow a relevant base.  My son is at a boarding school.  My personal belief is that it is very unlikely they will be able to get the full compliment of pupils back before New Year, I have February to April 2021 as the likely date, dependent pretty much exclusively on progress with an effective vaccine.  When I say that there is usually a chorus of, 'no, they'll do something by September'.  I hope I am pessimistic and they are right, but what are we going to do?

This is a very nasty disease, it spreads quickly, and there is a hell of a lot we don't know about it, although we are learning very fast.  The area on the planet closest to reaching 'herd immunity' is the Bronx NYC with an estimated penetration of c.28% infection but at an almost unimaginable cost in terms of lives and local health service breakdown.

Every field of life you can think of presents logistical complications to an extent that 'normality' as we have known it is close to unachievable until there is an almost completely functioning vaccine in which we can have almost complete confidence.

I think that BB, who is usually so sanguine, is on the money on this one.  However, one area where I suspect we may not agree as to the achievability of a big task in the near future is getting something worth having out of the EU 

Tenez wrote:

bogbrush wrote:I don’t think normality will return for perhaps a couple of years. Other than rules from authorities, dissent from within and the threat of legal challenge will make the sport inoperable.

- international travel will be extremely difficult, meaning international tournaments will not be feasible. Even if the top guys could run a private jet to every venue we won’t have 128-strong draws, and that renders any Slam invalid
- crowds aren’t going to happen and that means the event is fundamentally changed
- the meat & drink events sustaining the lower / mid levels can not restart so players are going to pack it up, again changing the game into an exho-style one.

If I’m correct then this is going to result in a few years gap followed by a fundamentally different game with a hollowed out centre. I can imagine something where the top players put on stuff like the Laver Cup (ffs), or it just looks like the Pro circuit of the 60’s.

We always wondered when the current top 3 were going to be supplanted. In the end it took a pandemic to do it.

Or Cov 19 disappears from the face of earth in th enext 2 months and normaiity will resume.

In any case people need to undertand they are mortal! We cannot gp through other lockdowns like that because a virus kills 80yos!

Personally I agree except for it disappearing, I think we will have this in existence for good now, it’s part of living on this Planet.

We live with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, other diseases. Now we’ll have to live with this.

Why more than SRAS? It is a very similar virus. Just a seasonal virus apparently.

Yeah, maybe. They're all different though and this seems to have greater communicability which would make it more likely to hang around. It's a big old World and it only has to survive in a corner to pop up again. Anyway, I'm sure our Chinese friends will have another one on the way in a while.

I am pretty sure the virus will be soon forgotten but not the financial damage which we will start to measure when our lock down is over.

Good afternoon all. I hope you are all keeping safe and well in more unusual times. I've certainly had a bellyful of the chaos caused by this pandemic. 

It's interesting to note what the immediate future of tennis will look like. There are so many challenges, notwithstanding the financial implications and would not surprise me if tennis went back to the days of amateur given how light prize money is about to get. I don't envisage a world that will be Covid free as 1) it relies on the intelligence of people (which is in short supply) and 2) lack of a globalised approach to tackling the virus.

What does this mean for tennis? Well for me the obvious issues are:

1) Smaller to non-existent arenas. You might end up in a situation of complexes paying for the privilege of holding events rather than profiting from it. 

2) Quarantine. How many events will now be dropped from the calendar? With fewer low ranking events for the lower ranked players, those points will be harder to come by and the viablity of a tennis career will fast dwindle. Disaster for the American College Tennis circuit which will see interest tail off. 

3) Future Generations. Tennis in recent time has seen a model of young talent going outside of their native lands to find better development. Similar with quarantine, I think we will see political parties use this as a convenient excuse to reform immigration policy in respective countires. 

4) Absence of a vaccine. I can't say much on this (given about to join a lab company) however the noises I've been hearing within the sector is in all likelihood a preventative vaccine will not be found. All it takes is 1 positive test and a tournament could be out the window. 

Lastly I hope Emancipator is doing well. If I am not mistaken he is a paramedic and I hope he has kept safe during these times.