Experience works, because it teaches. And of the two previous editions of the Córdoba Open ATP 250, surely the organizers took notes that will flatten the way to launch a third version of the contest, from February 20 to 28.
However, the context is unprecedented due to the coronavirus, and the pandemic will offer challenges that must be overcome based, mainly, on experiences outside the tournament.
What has been done since August 20, when the men’s tennis circuit was reactivated with the Cincinnati Masters 1000 dispute in New York, will undoubtedly do the trick. Since then, the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP) established a strict protocol so that tournaments can be held generating the least possible risk for their participants and for the society that hosted them. The same did the WTA for the female branch.
Periodic tests, reduction of companions for the players, impossibility of contact with people outside the tournament bubble (that includes a large part of the press) are some of the measures that will be replicated in Córdoba next February.
But it is not the only thing that will have to be learned from what has been done on the ATP circuit to celebrate the third edition of the tennis tournament on clay courts at the Mario Kempes stadium facilities.
It will also be necessary to take note of what happened on October 10, when Córdoba decided to get out of the organization of the bubbles of the National Basketball League, which were to be played in November in the provincial capital and in Villa Carlos Paz.
Then, “due to the epidemiological and health situation of Córdoba due to Covid-19”, with a “growing number of infections and a high degree of occupancy of beds dedicated to this pathology in the Province”, the Córdoba Sports Agency announced the impossibility of hosting the competition, which ended up being held unsuccessfully regarding sanitary measures in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
With an international tournament ahead, which arrived in Córdoba to stay for at least a decade and which raffled the first two editions with great approval from players, the public and the ATP itself, the unpredictability that it could happen with the coronavirus in this Earth will have to be as “predictable” as possible so as not to make a false step again. Is that the dispute of the tournament was confirmed this Tuesday and in the coming days it will be known when the registrations to play it open.
One thing is clear: if this tournament allows Córdoba to be shown around the world, it will also do so if it fails, or if it is not in a position to face the challenge of doing so.
Córdoba, in what touches him in his role as host to organize the appointment, will also be able to learn from what he does a month before, on January 23, when the final of the Copa Sudamericana de Fútbol is played at the same Kempes Stadium.
At the end of the day, everything is learned.
The original text of this article was published on 12/31/2020 in our print edition.
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