World’s best will find life tough in US Open, warns Webley-Smith

AS BRITAIN’S only playing representative at this week’s return of tour tennis in Palermo, Emily Webley-Smith was backstage to witness its trials and tribulations.

A sudden positive test, announced 35 minutes before the first ball was hit, players escaping the official hotel to go out and eat and the initial greeting of being tested in the car park by medics in Hazmat suits. These are the kind of things to which those on tour will need to become accustomed, particularly at the US Open this month, when the upheavals will be on a grander scale altogether.

Rafael Nadal is among those who have decided it is not for him and Webley-Smith said: ‘The top players are going to find it harder than the rest because they are used to having everything how they want it. They normally have lots of people with them but for me it doesn’t change anything because I travel alone anyway.’

Webley-Smith is GB’s longest-serving pro on the men’s or women’s tour and these days competes as a doubles specialist. While her compatriots stayed back at Roehampton for the unofficial ‘Battle of the Brits’ team event, she took herself off to Sicily.

Not for the sheer adventure of it but because she saw it as a chance to secure some precious ranking points with playing opportunities now so limited.

She was desperate for competition after a lockdown which she spent in two ways. At home in Gloucestershire she was caring for her mother and father, who are suffering from Parkinson’s disease and cancer respectively. She earned money by coaching while keeping up her training.

Then she found a partner in Germany’s Vivian Heisen and entered the Palermo Ladies’ Open, where they narrowly lost their opening match in an unfamiliar environment. Only 350 fans per day were allowed in (350 more than there will be in New York), while only one player at a time was allowed in the locker room.

Webley-Smith says the key to a successful return of the circuit will be players taking personal responsibility. She said: ‘It comes down to players being able to trust each other, but players tend to be quite selfish because you have to be. The rules have to be made very clear. If one person steps out of line there is the danger it will ruin it for everyone else.’