Amritraj: Roger Federer, Djokovic e Rafael Nadal won’t be affected by loss of money

Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj says that the current tennis shutdown will not affect the Big Three of men's tennis - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic - much but all the other tennis players will be affected by current crisis.

Amritraj had provided his comments on the current tennis scenario during an interview to the Press Trust of India.

The 66 year old Amritraj says, "They (Federer, Djokovic and Nadal) won’t be affected at all by the loss of money or points. They are all chasing each other on the number of Grand Slams as they have legacies already in place. They have all made history in their own way."

“All the challengers (the younger generation including Tsitsipas, Thiem and others) are still catching up. They are the best behind the top three and there are several others as well. But until they start winning the Grand Slam events and that too on a regular basis, which they will, we have to wait and see how the top three maintain their winning record especially as age is not on their side."

“Everyone in the tennis world will be affected (by the shutdown). Players in various ranking categories will be affected in their own way. The lesser players will really struggle to make a strong comeback when this virus is contained. And older players will have lost crucial time.

“The Indian players will also be affected exactly like the lower-ranked players, making it hard to get back in position of fitness, ranking points and cash on hand to get started quickly when it opens up.”

The former World No. 16 says that if the global tennis circuit does resume, it may be without fans to start with but added that the global nature of the sport makes it more difficult to return as compared to other sports.

“Tennis this year seems a bit distant though the US Open and the delayed French Open seem to still have a date in place. We will have to wait and see if it still happens. Tennis could potentially return with no fans for the rest of this year. That’s also tentative depending on each country’s situation. Social distancing and the fact that players come from different countries makes our sport tougher to run."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3dgcdeq