ROGER & OUT?
Virus to cost Federer last hope of a Grand Slam if Wimbledon falls Now he’s part of political battle to resolve calendar
SUCH is his eminence that Roger Federer can expect to be among the first to know when, as appears almost certain, Wimbledon is called off later this week.
The Swiss master may not see it this way, but others will think his best chance of adding one more to his 20 Grand Slam titles will disappear with the expected annulment of the 2020 Championships.
Grass is the surface on which his skills best match up against opponents, and increasing physical limitations are best shielded. By the time of the next Wimbledon he will be nearly 40, but surely keen to say what could be a proper farewell to the Centre Court.
That might yet prove a last appearance in London, because among the enormous fallout for tennis from the coronavirus is a serious threat to this year’s valedictory ATP finals at the O2 Arena in mid-November.
The hugely popular season finale is due to move to Turin in 2021 and is, The Mail on Sunday understands, one of the most difficult areas for those charged with trying to salvage something from the rest of the year.
The game’s authorities are wargaming different scenarios, based on the inexact science of guessing when the current crisis might have abated enough to allow tournaments to resume.
The ATP Finals are open to the top eight qualifying singles players and doubles teams, but nobody can know how many results there will be to work on. There is a fairness issue, with some players probably being able to join any season restart sooner than others.
As with Wimbledon, there are many problems that make postponement largely impractical. In the case of the O2 Arena it would be the other bookings for the venue in the pre-Christmas period, assuming they are not also cancelled.
Bar the Davis Cup week in Madrid — also an uncertain fixture — it is the full stop to the season, and ATP sources say there is little appetite to push back into December.
The All England Club have already announced that a final decision on Wimbledon will be made this week after an ‘emergency board meeting’.
Insiders say that, in reality, this is likely to be several teleconferences at which the numerous drawbacks to staging a huge international sports event in the current climate will be spelt out. Among the board members expected to reluctantly conclude that this will be like a war year ( the last cancellation was 1945) will be Tim Henman, former cabinet secretary Lord Gus O’Donnell, new chairman I an Hewitt and ex-player turned sports administrator Debbie Jevans.
They will, at least, make the decision safe in the knowledge that they are better insured against their losses than the vast majority of sports events. According to sources, a few years ago the All England committee had the foresight to explicitly guard themselves against the effects of a global pandemic.
The financial hit for missing a year should therefore be limited. This should, in turn, protect the Lawn Tennis Association, who are so dependent on the annual handout of about £40million they receive from the tournament’s proceeds.
Moving back into the now vacant Olympic slot looks to be a non-runner. For a start it cannot be known if a few weeks would make any difference. In addition there are massive logistical challenges for suppliers, and only a short climatic window for optimal grass court conditions as t he days shorten. It is also true that at any time of crisis, no one wants to look indecisive.
Wimbledon certainly wish to avoid making themselves a pariah in the international game like the French Open. Paris is not believed to be covered, insurance-wise, in the same way, and has unilaterally switched to late September, after the US Open. The shock move was made on March 17, and shattered any hopes of tennis taking a unified approach to the crisis.
That same date, a week last Tuesday, was meant to be the second day of a previously unreported global summit of the sport’s leaders.
The four Grand Slams and the main governing bodies were due to meet together at a central London hotel to discuss the game’s future, but it had to be abandoned because of travel restrictions.
‘We’re now in a place where people think it’s better to have a cooling off period, because feelings are still running high about the French,’ said one top executive in the game. There are hopes that — if the health crisis eases — the French might be persuaded to shift again to allow a proper warm-up on clay, instead of everyone hotfooting it from the hard courts of New York.
Again Federer will be an interested party. At present the annual Laver Cup team event that he and his management company promote faces a huge problem, as it now clashes with the new Paris dates.
Not that the Laver Cup is in a position to complain about calendar land grabs. It plonked itself uninvited against other tournaments in a September slot three years ago, and then grabbed again when it reversed its original plan to lie fallow in congested Olympic years.
That is one of the few career decisions that the great Swiss may now be regretting.