Joe Salisbury: Good idea but Djokovic should've spoken to players a bit more first

British doubles tennis ace Joe Salisbury says he supports World No. 1 Novak Djokovic's proposed plan to provide financial relief to the lower ranked players but would have preferred to have heard about it from the correct channels rather than the media.

Speaking to The Evening Standard, Salisbury says, "It’s a good idea, but I didn’t agree with how we went about it. I’d not heard anything about it until I saw it in the media, so maybe he should have spoken to the players a bit more first. I’m not sure every player in question will be willing to give over their money. He says he’s written to all the players now, but I’ve not heard anything.”

Salisbury, who won the Australian Open doubles title in January with Rajeev Ram, says that he does not think the tennis circuit will resume in 2020.  “I don’t think we’re going to play until next year. The US Open is next up on the calendar. As things stand, that’s still planning to go ahead, but I think that all the US tournaments will get cancelled soon. I don’t see how we can get back until there’s a vaccine, until people can travel globally again, which doesn’t look like it’s going to happen for a long time. Tennis is one of the worst [sports] for it. With football, you can stay in one country, it’s a more controlled environment. With tennis, people are travelling all over the world to a different place every week.”

The 28 year old, who is ranked No. 7 in the world rankings, says he is also keen to play in the tennis event for British players being proposed by Jamie Murray.  “We have a British players WhatsApp group and Jamie’s spoken to us about it. I think it’s still fairly early stages in getting live streaming or broadcasting sorted, but I can’t wait to get back on court, so it would be great to do that. It would be great for players and fans to get us back competing again. It won’t be the same as a proper tournament, but it’s the best thing we’re able to do in this situation.”

Salisbury has won 5 ATP doubles titles and peaked at No. 3 in the doubles rankings in February this year.

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