When COVID-19 broke out and hit the whole world, industries were forced to take a step back and cease operations for public health and safety. The same thing happened to the world of entertainment and sports.
Due to the large crowds that these events generate, many sporting events were cancelled to prevent the further spread of the virus. These cancelled events included all professional tennis tours, including the most prestigious tour of them all, Wimbledon.
One of the things some folks consider when they purchase a property is the prestigious ATP event. That was one of the town’s draws. In fact, the whole world knows Wimbledon as an event more than it is a district of London.
Of course, compared to other more important things, grieving for cancelled tours isn’t really high up the list. However, to those who work in the industry and all the fans who cherish the sport, it comes as a huge blow.
At the rate that things are going, it is highly likely that professional tennis events will be bumped to next year.
A Different Kind of Normal
Typically, around this time, people would have already started preparing for their trip to Wimbledon to witness the world’s finest tennis players in action. Wimbledon is, after all, summer’s most cherished rite in this part of the world and in the world of tennis.
However, with its cancellation, and the announcement that the Laver Cup has also been suspended, fans are now getting restless. One can only take so many reruns and replays of the different ATP tours on their local sports channels.
Professional athletes have been coming up with creative ways to keep their loyal fans entertained — not to mention fighting off their boredom at home — despite the season.
Several tennis players have taken to their Instagram and TikTok accounts and increased their following. Some others continued to compete virtually via Nintendo Switch in live-streamed games of Mario Tennis Aces.
However, in spite of their attempts, not one of these comes close to the actual thrill of witnessing game-winning cross-courts and volleys.
Initially, the ATP and WTA announced that all games at the professional level will be suspended until June 7th. Back then, Wimbledon was still a go, with plans of keeping the late-June to early-July schedule as is.
In a statement by Richard Lewis, All England Lawn Tennis Clubs’ chief executive, he claimed that planning for the event is a continuously evolving process. He gave a guarantee that they will act and decide responsibly with everyone’s best interests in mind.
And true enough, they made one of the hardest decisions when they decided to suspend Wimbledon this year. It was not an easy decision to make but they had to make that ruling as the threat of the coronavirus still poses a danger to a lot of people.
We can assume that it will be like this until we get to the point that we already have a cure or vaccine or we develop herd immunity to the disease. Either way, things won’t be going back to the way they were. At least not immediately.
