TennisNH

'Stay out of the outside the world': the new normal on the WTA tour | Tumaini Carayol

07-Aug-2020 14:31:38 | Guardian

As the tennis world adjusts to a new reality, the coming months on the professional tour look will be unpredictable to say the least

Moments after an exhausted Sara Errani completed her first tennis match in five long months, instinct took over. As she hobbled back to her chair, the former world No 4 did what she has done in most of her 959 career matches, tearing off her wristband then tossing it to a young fan in the socially distanced crowd. To her right, the umpire visibly cringed and held her face in her hands, a picture of dismay.

This week, professional tennis returned at a small women’s event in Palermo after months of cancellations. It stands as a first look at how the sport can function in this new reality and, in an individual sport where players are their own authorities, how willingly the players will follow the rules.

The results have been fascinating, particularly underlining the diversity of the perspectives involved. While Errani immediately apologised, a day later 19-year-old Kaja Juvan committed the same faux pas. She shrugged off the umpire’s advice and then afterwards displayed some measure of unfamiliarity about the incubation period of the virus: “Obviously, we get tested a lot so I understand their concern… But all of us that are here are negative so I was like, well, I got the [test] result again today so I thought, OK well I might as well give it to them,” she said.

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