The stadium announcer at Palermo on Monday wished a heat and welcome return to tennis lovers because the WTA tournament in Italy began 5 months after the final one, with bottles of hand sanitiser hooked up to the nets. The occasion comes simply weeks earlier than the US Open and Roland Garros double-header however misplaced authentic prime seed Simona Halep to lingering well being issues whereas an unnamed participant withdrew from qualifying after testing constructive for COVID-19. There have been some 350 followers allowed right into a venue that usually holds 1,500.
Sofia Kenin and Elina Svitolina captured titles on March eight, the final day of aggressive matches earlier than the circuit was placed on maintain because the tennis calendar was shaken the other way up.
The celebrated Indian Wells occasion within the California desert turned the primary competitors axed as a result of pandemic. The French Open was then moved to late September with Wimbledon cancelled for the primary time since World Battle II.
When Croatia’s Donna Vekic and the Netherlands’ Arantxa Rus took to the clay-court late on Monday some 150 days after the game’s hiatus began they weren’t carrying face masks.
After Vekic gained there was a video press-conference the place she informed media she was joyful to have remembered how you can play tennis.
“It is bizarre, generally humorous with all of the protocols, masks in your face, visors and screens within the transport,” she mentioned.
“After all it is necessary, however so completely different from earlier than — it appears unreal,” she mentioned.
The road judges and umpire have been masked and the gamers needed to stand behind a social distancing line to method them.
The stands in Sicily are cleared and disinfected after every match.
Gamers within the second assembly have been informed politely to put on their masks throughout the remaining intervals and to sanitise their arms from the meting out bottles hooked up to the web poles.
There have been hand gel bottles positioned in all places within the passages between the seats and within the entrances.
Hand shaking or hugging after the matches is forbidden with gamers tapping rackets over the web from a secure distance.
High seed Petra Martic, who faces Alison van Uytvanck on Tuesday, mentioned it was an honour to be again.
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“It has been so lengthy since I used to be at a event, so lengthy since I performed, so lengthy since I received this adrenaline rush from enjoying. It is a privilege being again on court docket,” she mentioned.
The lads should wait till the Western and Southern Open — moved from its conventional Cincinnati residence to New York — begins on August 22, after the event in Washington DC was known as off.
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