Lucas Pouille: Tennis season is over

Five-time ATP champion Lucas Pouille says he hopes that the season will resume at some point of the year but realistically speaking he expects that the whole season will eventually get cancelled. 

Since suspending the season initially for six weeks on March 12, the ATP twice extended the Tour suspension as now there won't be any events taking place until at least July 13.

"I strongly believe in it. I am not for it, on the contrary. I really want and I can't wait for the season to resume so that we can replay games, feel the pressure and all the adrenaline we have during competitions," Pouille told France Info. 

"Unfortunately, as it stands, I don't see how tennis can resume. We are a sport a little different from the others, in the sense that every week we play in a different country, sometimes on a different continent.

"As long as the players are not free to travel as they wish, for me, the circuit cannot resume. It would be unfair if Americans could not come to Roland-Garros (note: from September 20 to October 4) or that the French could not go to play in the United States."

Just as former world No. 10 Pouille, several other players have stated that the hope the season will resume but added they won't be surprised if the whole season eventually gets called off. 

"I think most people think the same. When you see how quickly the disease is spreading right now, all the deaths and all the people infected, it's going to be very complicated for the United States (to organize tournaments). It is very complicated for us, for Spain, for Italy," Pouille said.

"I have read that confinement was beginning in South America. It affects the whole world and from the moment it affects the whole world, it will take a lot, a long time before it becomes normal and everything becomes as before.

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