Season should resume next March at
Indian Wells, says Jabeur
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[April 24, 2020]
(Reuters) - The tennis season
stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic should only resume next March and
tournaments that have already been completed this year should not be
played in the 2021 season, Australian Open quarter-finalist Ons
Jabeur said.
Professional tennis has been suspended since March due to the
coronavirus outbreak when Indian Wells became the first major
tournament to be cancelled. The ATP and WTA Tours said the hiatus
will continue at least until mid-July.
Tunisian Jabeur, the first Arab woman to reach the quarter-finals of
a Grand Slam, said resuming the season later this year was not ideal
as it would not be fair when calculating ranking points.
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"I don't think it's a good idea to start the season this year. Start
the season again next year in March," Jabeur said in Eurosport's
Tennis Legends vodcast.
"Don't start by playing the Australian Open since we already played
it this year ... start from Indian Wells, where everybody stopped.
It's fair for the other Grand Slams, it's fair for the points and
for everything."
This year's French Open was moved to Sept. 20-Oct. 4 while the
Wimbledon championships, which were set to begin in late June, were
cancelled.
U.S. Open organisers said last week that playing the hardcourt Slam
without fans is unlikely and Jabeur, ranked 39 in the world,
believes it would not be fair on the players if only certain majors
could be completed in a season.
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![](../images/042420pics/sports63.jpg)
Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in action during her match against Sofia Kenin
of the U.S. REUTERS/Issei Kato
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Former world number one Andy Murray said on Wednesday tennis will be
one of the last sports to return to action after the world has
recovered from the pandemic and Jabeur expects the Tours to restart
in September. [nL5N2CA856]
"Honestly, I think, September is going to be where everything is
going to start," she added. "Let's say even if we start in July –
what about the other tournaments?
"What about the other Grand Slams if we can play around two or three
Grand Slams for a year and just skip the other one? How is it fair
for the points, how is it fair for the other players?
"Everybody lost a lot of things... We don't stop playing tennis, we
will start playing tennis again, but not with the ranking."
(Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar
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