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A smooth start to world tennis

2021-01-05T17:58:37.208Z


As the Abu Dhabi women's tournament begins this Wednesday (January 6 to 13), the men's circuit will start Thursday with the ATP 250 from Antalya and Delray Beach (January 7 to 13) with modest castings.


After a year 2020 cut by five months and marked by many cancellations, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 season should (a priori) unfold almost normally.

The men's circuit will start on January 7 and end on November 21 with the Turin Masters.

The Davis Cup will close the year in Madrid (22-28 November).

The WTA (women's circuit) presented Tuesday a provisional schedule until June-July.

The start of the season has in any case already been thwarted.

The Australian Open has been postponed for three weeks, with qualifying moved to Doha for the men and Dubai for the women.

And covid-19 has claimed new "victims".


Many players have withdrawn from the first two tournaments of the year, in Delray Beach and Antalya, where they were initially registered.

Fears of the virus

In the event of contamination or contact with a person positive for Covid-19, a 10-day quarantine is imposed.

With the departure for Australia and its two-week quarantine scheduled between January 15 and 17, some have played it safe to give themselves a chance to play the Australian Open without a hitch from February 8 ... The Italian prodigy Jannik Sinner, the French Benoît Paire or the Croatian Borna Coric have thus decided to withdraw from the Turkish tournament where the headliners will be the Italians Matteo Berrettini and Fabio Fognini, 10th and 17th in the world.

And the Florida test suffered even more from the packages.

Milos Raonic (14th ATP) or the Japanese Kei Nishikori, former world number 4, threw in the towel.

The number 1 seed being the Chilean Cristian Garin, 22nd in the world.

The French Adrian Mannarino, ranked 34th in the world, being seeded 3 ...

THE DRAW IS OUT pic.twitter.com/9UHebXe48T

- Delray Beach Open (@DelrayBeachOpen) January 4, 2021

In Abu Dhabi, the women officially start the season with an expanded roster of 64 players and a larger cast.

It is the only tournament in the history of the WTA that will be played without sponsors on the tarpaulins around the courts.

“We don't have any sponsors.

The objective of this event is not commercial, our goal is to give work to the players of the circuit.

And I can tell you that from the start of the discussions with the WTA we were on the same line, ”explained tournament director Bharat Godkhindi.

Main Draw in Abu Dhabi, where Sofia Kenin, Elina Svitolina, Karolina Pliskova, and Aryna Sabalenka are the top seeds.



1Rs include:


Muguruza-Mladenovic


Jabeur-Pavlyuchenkovahttps: //t.co/YSzFRuOF5X


Vondrousova-Hsieh


Svitolina-Pugula pic.twitter.com/CvRGc1Mu0y

- WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) January 4, 2021

And seven of the top twenty players in the world answer the call, including Sofia Kenin, 4th in the world and seeded 1 and Elina Svitolina, 5th in the WTA.

Except Caroline Garcia who forfeited, the best French will be present.

Kristina Mladenovic and Fiona Ferro are notably in contention in the Emirates.

After this smooth recovery it will be time for the touring caravan to turn to Australia and its tennis orgy.

No less than 7 events will thus take place in Melbourne.

The Australian tour will start on January 31st with 2 WTA 500 and 2 ATP 250. During this same week the ATP Cup will take place and from the 8th, the Australian Open will start.

Then, in the second week, of the Grand Slam, the eliminated ones of the first week will be able to turn to a WTA 250 ... 

Read also

  • In 2021, the tennis world will have to tighten its belt (again)

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-01-05

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