An Unwelcome Break

The COVID-19 virus has hit the sporting world, in a small way directly, but the fear of what its impact may eventually be has led to extreme caution.

It has seen dumping of the 2020 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California, and now has extended to a suspension of the ATP and ITF Tours until and including 20 April this year.

While not yet official, it is likely that the WTA will follow suit.

Already, the Volvo Car Open in Charleston, scheduled for 6-12 April, has been dropped, and the Miami Open, which includes both ATP Masters 1000 and WTA Premier Mandatory events, is not proceeding on 23 March.

The impact is clearly severe, financially and from a reputation perspective. A city may never recover and be able to host one of the affected tournaments again.

And of course spectators are losers - although refunds are assured, the process takes time and at the end of the day there is no tennis.

The players are obviously affected - their year long planned schedules have been shot to bits, and no one can confidently predict a recommencement date, given changing knowledge of the virus, and decisions of those in power.

Rankings are an issue - weekly points from 2019 tournaments are dropped from a players total, while no replacements are available.  This leads to an unfair representation - those who were successful in tournaments last year, which are not being played in this period of suspension, will be hit hard. Others, who faired worse in those same tournaments, are not so badly harmed.

As an example, before Indian Wells, Bianca Andreescu was ranked #6, Angelique Kerber #21 and Milos Raonic #30.

Just as a result of that tournament not being played, the rankings changed to #11, #39 and #47 respectively.

So, for a Grand Slam tournament, the next being Roland Garros, should it be played:

Bianca Andreescu would have been seeded to play a quarter final, but now would be seeded for the round of sixteen.

Angelique Kerber would have been seeded for the third round, but now would be unseeded.

Milos Raonic would have been seeded for the the third round, but now would be unseeded.

This issue also relates to direct entry into tournaments, also dependent on rankings.

My suggested solution is to use protected rankings for now, based on pre Indian Wells rankings. Use these for determining direct entry into tournaments, and for setting seeds, when the respective tours recommence.

Hopefully the recommencement will be soon and tennis may be once again enjoyed by spectators world wide.