Tennis may finally be Covid-19 free after 27 months of tournament cancellations, Covid-19 testing, and spectator free events. Tennis had struggled with Covid-19 for two years, more than most other events had.
The NFL, NBA, and premier league resumed normal life, but tennis players were still being quarantined and tested for Covid-19 almost daily.
Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 men’s singles player, had caught his second case of Covid-19. He was unvaccinated and thought he would be able to gain special entry to Australia in order to play in the Australian open, but that proved not to be the case. Australia has restricted visitors to mostly vaccinated people, so officials deported Djokovic in case he encouraged others to not get vaccinated.
No spectators were allowed at the 2020 US Open. The Billie Jean King National tennis center was strangely quiet without the usual hustle and bustle from the many spectators. The French Open was rescheduled, but there were only a few hundred spectators allowed. The 2021 Australian Open also made the players quarantine for 14 days before being able to enter the tournament.
Wimbledon and the French open had no mandatory testing, leaving players at a loss for what to do if they had tested positive. Matteo Berrettini and Maric Cilic withdrew from the tournament after testing positive, though they could have played even with symptoms.
“So many rules,” Rafael Nadal said. “For some people some rules are fine; for the others rules are not fine. If there are some rules, we need to follow the rules. If not, the world is a mess.”
Many tennis players struggled to remain safe while also being able to compete. Though tennis may have tried to move on from Covid-19, Covid-19 is definitely not done with tennis.
The NFL, NBA, and premier league resumed normal life, but tennis players were still being quarantined and tested for Covid-19 almost daily.
Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 men’s singles player, had caught his second case of Covid-19. He was unvaccinated and thought he would be able to gain special entry to Australia in order to play in the Australian open, but that proved not to be the case. Australia has restricted visitors to mostly vaccinated people, so officials deported Djokovic in case he encouraged others to not get vaccinated.
No spectators were allowed at the 2020 US Open. The Billie Jean King National tennis center was strangely quiet without the usual hustle and bustle from the many spectators. The French Open was rescheduled, but there were only a few hundred spectators allowed. The 2021 Australian Open also made the players quarantine for 14 days before being able to enter the tournament.
Wimbledon and the French open had no mandatory testing, leaving players at a loss for what to do if they had tested positive. Matteo Berrettini and Maric Cilic withdrew from the tournament after testing positive, though they could have played even with symptoms.
“So many rules,” Rafael Nadal said. “For some people some rules are fine; for the others rules are not fine. If there are some rules, we need to follow the rules. If not, the world is a mess.”
Many tennis players struggled to remain safe while also being able to compete. Though tennis may have tried to move on from Covid-19, Covid-19 is definitely not done with tennis.
