Rafael Nadal is pessimistic about a return to normalcy for the professional tennis circuit.
Tennis, like virtually all sports, has been shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not anticipated to resume until mid-July at the earliest.
“From my point of view, I’m very pessimistic that the circuit can resume normal activity,” Nadal stated in an online chat organized by the Spanish Tennis Federation. “In tennis, you need to travel every week, stay in hotels, go to different countries.
“Even if we play without an audience, to organize any event, you need a lot of people involved, which cannot be ignored. At an international level, I see a serious problem.”
Nadal has seen Wimbledon canceled and the French Open reprogrammed for the end of September, however the world’s No. 2-ranked player and 19-time Grand Slam winner appears to be taking scope of the bigger picture.
“We have already said many times we are in a very difficult moment, for everyone,” the 33-year-old Spaniard said. “Step by step, it looks like things are slightly less bad, but we’ve been through one and a half very tough months, lots of irreparable losses and other losses that are less important but without doubt will cause suffering in society in the following months.
“I hope it will be months not years, because it’s also an economic issue, as well. Lots of people are going to lose their jobs. These are sad moments when you see so many people dying.”
As of Monday morning, nearly 3 million people around the world had been diagnosed with the disease, with more than 207,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
“It will be a very tough job to regain fitness and you will need lots of discipline and lots of suffering,” he said. “The sooner we can resume activity the better. From the point of view about going back to competitions, I’m pessimistic.
Spain has been notably badly hit by the virus with 223,759 infections and 23,190 deaths.
Nadal is due to play in a ‘virtual’ Madrid Open starting on Monday with 32 of the world’s best players swapping rackets for gaming controls in a computerised version of the tournament.
