As the governing bodies of tennis continue to ponder when they will be able to resume their Tour’s, a group of players in South Western Germany has shot to the limelight.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the sport to a halt since March with various tournaments being either cancelled or suspended. Including Wimbledon, which hadn’t been axed from the calendar since 1945. Filling the void of no tournaments taking part, exhibition events are starting to occur around the globe with the focus this weekend being on the Base Tennis club in Höhr-Grenzhausen.
In a massive coup for the German Tennis Federation (DTB), the Tennis Channel are broadcasting matches from the event which has a format similar to that of Fast4. Where the winner is the first player to reach four games instead of six. One of the most notable participants is Dustin Brown. A former top 70 player who is best known for defeating Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon.
“A couple of weeks ago there were no plans to get on the court anytime soon,” Brown told tennis.com. “Was a tough time because it’s tough to get motivated when there’s no date for returning to play.”
Brown helped bring the event to life along with tennis owner Rodney Rapson. The field is headlined by Yannick Hanfmann, who is currently ranked 143rd in the world. In total eight German players are taking part (Johannes Haerteis, Jan Choinski, Benjamin Hassan, Constantin Schmitz, Jean-Marc Werner and Florian Broska).
While the event provides hope that the sport can get going in the near future, it is far from ordinary. In line with measures implemented to tackle COVID-19, fans are not allowed to attend. Only the umpire and two players are allowed on the court due to social distancing. There is no camera operator there to film the match with video being recorded by PlaySight Interactive. To speed up play, there is no-advantage scoring taking place.
Given the unique circumstances, Brown admits that he and his fellow players have mixed feelings about being able to return to action in some capacity. This weekend was meant to be the start of the prestigious Madrid Open. A combined event that is the biggest tennis competition to take place in Spain.
“It’s different to play when you don’t really have any fans there,” admits Brown, “but at the end of the day I think all of the guys—Yannick [Hanfmann, the highest-ranked player in the competition], the other guys—are just happy to be on the court to play and compete.”
Speaking with The Tennis Channel about his performance in the event so far, the 35-year-old says it feels ‘surreal’ to take part.
“It’s nice to finally play, it’s a little surreal to be honest, with everything that is actually going on in the world,” he said.
“With all the safety guidelines I think everyone has done pretty well, doing their best. Even sometimes when it’s not that easy. Very happy to be out here and have some fun.”
The first leg of the The Tennis Point Exhibition Series will conclude on Monday. In total there will be three legs with the two others taking place between May 7-10 and May 14-17 at the same venue. Each leg sees the player’s play two matches on each of the first three days before the play-offs.
