Pampered stars will suffer, it’s so tough... Warns veteran Emily

Countdown to the 2020 US open ...22 days to go

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, 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.

The 36-year-old 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.

Inevitably there have been some mishaps en route to today’s final, with Bulgarian player Viktoriya Tomova testing positive for Covid- 19 and some taking it upon themselves to ignore advice not to leave the hotel other than to go to the courts.

Webley-Smith played it to the letter and, on her first night at the hotel, even went hungry. Room service was closed earlier than expected and she chose not to break her self-isolation as she waited for the results of her initial on-site Covid test.

One of the teething problems, she says, was the hotel catering. ‘Some players went out to eat because the hotel didn’t follow through on its arrangement with the WTA and, at first, food or the right food wasn’t available at certain t i mes, but t hat improved after the first couple of days.’

There was also understandable concern about the positive test for Tomova, but what really happened shows the potential problems that events will have to deal with. She is understood to have tested negative just before leaving Bulgaria, but when she took a test on arrival in Palermo it was positive.

Webley-Smith says the key to a successful return of the circuit will be players taking personal responsibility, which is not a given by any means. She has written a long email to WTA Tour chief executive Steve Simon detailing her thoughts.

‘The problem is that you are dealing with players from all sorts of different countries where experiences of Covid and attitudes towards it are varied. 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