In a very light ATP start to the season schedule, tournaments are not legion. As soon as a tournament is confirmed, the players, eager for matches, all rush to register. What makes the table of the Challenger of Quimper very high this year, and with an exceptional waiting list.
The final days leading up to the final draw were very busy for tournament management ahead of the start of Sunday. Arzel Mervellec, director, and Marc Gicquel, co-director did not let go of their phones, over-requested by the players. But they did not think they had certain last minute requests and in particular that of a certain Andy Murray.
A private house and land requested
All week, the two officials laughed at each other. It was the joke nobody believed: “Andy Murray is going to ask to play the tournament eventually!” And then at the end of last week, Marc Gicquel, former 37th player in the world in charge of player relations, received a phone call from the agent of the triple Grand Slam winner who told him that the former world number 1 wanted to play the Breton tournament.
But with a few conditions all the same: to be able to train on private land outside the official complex to avoid interactions and to stay in a luxury house with its staff. In the hours that followed, the organization worked to find him land (in a club in the region) and accommodation. The exchanges last 24 hours until last Friday evening on the eve of the draw.
Murray finally absent because of the Covid
Finally, after a positive Covid-19 test which had forced him to withdraw from the Australian Open, the Scotsman declines the Quimper proposal preferring “to continue training in Great Britain for an additional week”.
“His staff prefers that he stay at home an additional week before going to Europe to be sure that he no longer has any concerns about the virus, his agent told Arzel Mervellec. Sorry he will not come. (in Quimper) but he really appreciated your approach. “
Players ready to go through qualifying
If Andy Murray was the craziest candidacy of this 2021 edition, other players in need of competition tried their luck until the last moment to enter the table. This is particularly the case of the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina. The 54th player in the world, first registered, had been withdrawn from the participants after testing positive for Covid-19.
The sanitary deadlines having passed, the winner of Roland-Garros and Wimbledon juniors in 2017 asked to play the qualifications. A request rejected by the organization, which did not want to distort the fairness of the qualifications. There is no doubt that by Friday, the phone will ring again before the draw for “Quimper 2” which begins this Sunday.
