Covid19 puts paid to ASB Classic
TENNIS
AUCKLAND: January’s ASB Classic tournament in Auckland has been cancelled due to complications running the event amid the Covid19 pandemic.
Tournament director Karl Budge said plans were well under way for the tournament, but with too much uncertainty amid the Covid19 environment it has been cancelled.
‘‘Yeah, obviously an incredibly sad day for us,’’ Budge said.
‘‘We thought we had a plan that was robust, but unfortunately there was just not a pathway to a decision that we could have in the timeframes we needed and unfortunately that’s led to the pretty tough environment that we’re in today.’’
Quarantine restrictions were just one of the hurdles organisers were not able to overcome.
‘‘It’s an incredibly complex situation. There’s no sort of oneoff area that we met or didn’t meet. There’s a myriad of factors that we needed to work through.
‘‘Unfortunately there just wasn’t the pathway to get to a point that any of us could have confidence that we could deliver what you need to to deliver a tournament of our standing in a timeframe that would enable us to do it.’’
Budge has refused to blame the Government for the cancellation.
‘‘We’ve had support from a number of stakeholders throughout this process. Unfortunately, despite a lot of good effort we’ve just not been able to get to a position that we can get the decision we needed.
‘‘Whether we like it or not we have to cop it on the chin and move on.’’
Budge says the cancellation does not mean the end of the Auckland tournament.
‘‘We’re going to be bloody steely in our determination to go and take the ASB Classic to new levels.
‘‘We’ve been here for 60 years and no virus is going to stop the ASB Classic becoming the annual showpiece that it’s become and what we’ve known for a number of years.
‘‘We’ve got to make sure that we come back stronger.
‘‘We’ve had incredible support from our sponsors (and) the team that we’ve got here that work tirelessly on trying to make a summer of tennis happen and I think we owe it to them to do everything that we possibly can to ensure that we return in 2022 and we return with a real statement.’’ — RNZ
LONDON: World No 1 Novak Djokovic earned a recordbreaking 11th consecutive quarterfinal appearance at the French Open yesterday with a 64, 63, 63 victory against Russian Karen Khachanov.
Djokovic, who is aiming for a second Roland Garros title since 2016, secured the win in 2hr 26min under the roof of Court Philippe Chatrier as heavy rain poured down in Paris.
Earlier, in the women’s draw, Czech seventh seed Petra Kvitova progressed to the last eight after a commanding 62, 64 win against China’s Zhang
Shuai.
Kvitova is one of only four seeds left in the women’s tournament and meets German Laura Siegemund in the last eight after her 75, 64 win against Spain’s Paula Badosa.
American Sofia Kenin recovered from a set down to dismiss French favourite Fiona Ferro 26, 62, 61, but the Australian Open champion will have to wait a day for her opponent to be determined.
Tunisian Ons Jabeur and fellow American Danielle Collins warmed up on Court Suzanne Lenglen, which has no roof, but never got to start because of the weather and were scheduled to open play last night on Chatrier.
Greece’s Stefanos Tsitipas, seeded fifth, advanced as he battled past Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 63, 76 (119), 62 in an enthralling 2hr 26min match.
Tsitsipas moves into a quarterfinal against 13th seeded Andrey Rublev — a 67 (47), 75, 64, 76 (73) winner over Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics — in a rematch of last week’s Hamburg final won by the Russian.
Djokovic will also have a rematch with Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta again in the quarterfinals after he bested German qualifier Daniel Altmaier 62, 75, 62.
They last faced each other in the quarterfinals of the US Open, where Djokovic was disqualified for hitting a ball at a line judge. Djokovic said he experienced a moment of ‘‘deja vu’’ in the first set against Khachanov when a mistimed return flew off the Serbian’s racket and hit the face of a line judge.
No punishment was necessary because it was during play and the umpire was not hurt.
‘‘Obviously because of what happened in New York, people I guess are going to make the story out of this,’’ Djokovic said.
‘‘I saw he had a little bit of a bruise, like redness, in that place in the head where the ball hit him. It was a very awkward situation.’’