Fabio Fognini: Imagine what would happen if a player contracted virus at tournament

Italian tennis star Fabio Fognini thinks it will be extremely difficult to resume this season at any point of the year. 

The Tour has been suspended until at least July 13 due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

Unfortunately, there isn't too much optimism around the tennis world that the season will resume once the current suspension expires.

“Sometimes I do miss tennis, competing. But I think it will be very difficult to play this year. It is very difficult to pretend to play tournaments around the world," Fognini said during his Instagram Live session with Novak Djokovic. 

There have been talks about potentially staging events behind the closed doors once tennis returns.

The US Open organizers have said it's "highly unlikely" they would hold the event without fans but the Australian Open will explore that option, if necessary. 

Fognini, ranked at No. 11 in the world, isn't really a fan of staging events behind the closed doors.

"And in my opinion, I want to play with the public. I prefer to play when everything is normal, not half, without public or with different quarantines," Fognini admitted.

Fognini, the 2019 Monte Carlo Masters champion, says the conditions have to be 100 percent safe for tennis to return.

Former world No. 9 Fognini underlined that it would be a disaster if a player contracted the coronavirus at a tournament.

"Let’s imagine that we are players, coaches, coaches, doubles players, in the same tournament, and one gets infected … it would be a chaos," Fognini said.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Y2Lygy