Local tennis fans and Roger Federer followers must be distraught as the prestigious Wimbledon Open officially became the first major sporting event that local sports lovers love to follow to be totally knocked out from the 2020 calendar.
This after the All England Club announced its decision to cancel its two-week tournament, the only event among four Grand Slam tourneys played on grass, on Wednesday, April 1 due to the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
The United Kingdom is one of the nations hardest hit by COVID-19. According to worldometers.info, UK is both 7th worldwide in total COVID-19 cases with 29,474 and total deaths with 2,352 as of April 2,2020.
The cancellation is the first for the oldest Grand slam tournament in 75 years and the first ever in its 143-year existence due a reason other than war.
Wimbledon first was held in 1877. The only other times it wasn’t played was from 1915-18 due to World War I, and from 1940-45 due to World War II.
This means defending champions Novak Djokovic, one of the tennis’ “Big Three” in the men’s division, and Simona Halep of the women division, will not get a chance to defend their 2019 titles.
It could also mean grass court king Roger Federer’s all-time leading 20 Grand slam titles could be stuck at 20.
Federer, who is still recovering from knee surgery and will turn 39 this August, had originally planned to return to action during the European grass-court circuit, which includes the Wimbledon Open.
The grass courts of Wimbledon has been a favorite playing surface of Federer as evidenced by his eight Wimbledon titles, the best all-time among men.
Pete Sampras and William Renshaw are tied at second with seven each.
Federer expressed his being devastated via a message on his Twitter account.
Clay court specialist Rafael Nadal is hot on his tails with his 19 Grand slam tiles and could tie his rival if he wins the rescheduled 2020 French Open.
Nadal will still have his change to play on his favorite surface as the French Open is set start on September 20 at Roland Garros. Nadal earned 12 of his 19 slams during the French Open.
This is set to begin barely six days after the US Oen Men’s final is expected to be completed at Flushing Meadows, New York on September 13. The US Open is set to begin on August 31.
Wimbledon was scheduled to be played in London from June 29 to July 12 this year. The 2021 edition is scheduled to be held from June 28 to July 11, 2021.
Other major fan-favorite major events like the NBA and Major League Baseball are currently suspended indefinitely. The NBA, which was in a critical stretch of the regular season until its stoppage could possibly join the faith of Wimbledon if the US government couldn’t find another way to stop the spread of the Coronavirus Disease aside from performing physical distancing in the very near future.
The same scenario is happening here at home as the PBA, MPBL, and PSL are waiting for the right time to resume their respective tournaments.
This is also true for the Southeast Asia based Asean Basketball League (ABL) and the FIBA qualifiers. The ABL season particularly is the most in danger to be totally scrapped because of extensive travel requirements of its home-away game format.
On the other hand, the Tokyo Olympics, reset to 23 July to 8 August 2021, led events that are rescheduled next year.
The US NCAA men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments were the first casualties having been scrapped earlier last month.
Meanwhile, ONE Championship will provide the much needed sports action when their closed-door, audience-free events in Singapore will be aired on April 17, April 24, May 1, and May 8.
ONE suspended all scheduled events with live audiences for at least May 29, 2020 when ONE: INFINITY 1 is set to take place at the Mall of Asia Arena.
By: ARMANDO BOLISLIS
