“It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see (Roger) Federer,” Lahoti complains on the phone from the UK. “I don’t know if I would have had another chance since it is also closer to retirement.”
The spread of coronavirus has destroyed many of these plans. Under normal circumstances, Wimbledon’s pristine grass courts would have beaten with the sound of tennis balls, and the world’s best players in spotless whites, since June 29. Lahoti would have been in the stands the first weekend of the event, probably watching his favorite player float gracefully on the lawn.
Although Lahoti will have the preference for the same tickets next year, he is not sure he will return in 2021: at that point, work pressures and normality may have come back to life. Lahoti, who is studying for a master’s degree at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit of University College London, will graduate this year. Since the call will be next summer, it has a trail of hope to combine the two events.
“I have never been (to Wimbledon) in the past 10-12 years since I followed tennis. I’ve always had this (thought) —how to get tickets – and in January I applied for the vote, “he says. Now he thinks he will go around the tennis courts and” see it from the outside “, a tragic substitute for that that otherwise would have been a magical day-long experience of watching tennis, reluctantly spending the famous strawberries, perhaps lounging on Henman Hill / Murray Mound with a pint and visiting the magnificent museum.
International tennis has been suspended since early March, with the Citi Open in Washington on August 14 expected to be the first event to be held after the blockade. The Chile Open which ended on March 1st was the last ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) tournament to be completed this year. In the wake of the pandemic, Roland-Garros has rescheduled the French Open from its usual dates of May to September 27 (he played for three weeks for the first time, with qualifying rounds starting on September 21). The US Open is expected to take place from the scheduled date of August 31st.
Wimbledon, which was held for the first time in 1877, completely canceled the event for the first time since the two world wars (1915-18, 1940-45). The tournament organizers put together a sentimental video, dubbed by Federer, in the second week of April, in which he says: “We have to get together apart … no tent will be set up, no broken record, no trophy recorded. While frontline workers around the world compete for us, we rejoice in them. “
Since several countries started to freeze from February to March, fans may have lost their dose of regular sport but tennis players have also struggled to stay busy. So much so that the World No.1 Novak Djokovic, after having made a series of interviews and Insta-live chats with other players, organized an ill-conceived event in mid-June in Serbia and Croatia that exploded in his face. Four players, including Djokovic himself, proved positive for the covid-19 and the rest of his Adria Tour, which was to head to Bosnia, had to be canceled amidst a barrage of criticism.
“In the context of tennis, the news here is Djokovic’s chaos,” says London-based Juhi Bahl, who also had tickets for this year’s Wimbledon. He says that at the moment there is little buzz (the absence of) Wimbledon, because despite the people I missed sports, it was mainly football. The UK has started to open, summer is in full bloom and the Premier League has started again, “so the complaint fell on not having any sport,” he says with a laugh.
Both Bahl and Lahoti have gotten their refunds and she’s also not sure if she will go to Wimbledon next year: her priority is now the only Grand Slam she hasn’t seen yet, the Australian Open.
In the absence of real tennis, BBC Sport in the UK has scheduled over 50 hours of programming, tickling nostalgia with the televised broadcast of older games. Wimbledon has launched a series of campaigns, including an interactive game Play The Championships, an activity for schoolchildren to recreate their own Wimbledon poster design and a review of some of its best games on its website.
For the players, understandably, the void has been surreal. If someone had told Rohan Bopanna earlier in the year that he would spend three months in a row at home, he would not have been able to imagine it. Having spent most of over two decades in the hotel and living with suitcases, there could have been only a suitable replacement for the disappearance of Wimbledon this year.
Her 13-month-old daughter Tridha allowed Bopanna to remain joyful, even though the 40-year-old is not in England at this time of year, playing on her favorite surface and meeting friends.
“I’ve always liked grass fields and I’ve played well on them,” says the double player, ranked 37 in the world. “I missed him once (in 2009) when I hurt myself. I miss competing, especially having no budding event at all. I had some close semifinals (double in 2013 and 2015) there, both lost in five sets “.
He says everyone understands the situation, the need to prioritize the severity of the pandemic. “It’s the right thing to do but we all lack that kind of …”, he walks away.
Arun Janardhan is a Mumbai journalist who deals with sports, business leaders and lifestyle.
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