ATP Basel before cancellation: "Coronavirus has match balls to spoil the game"
The ATP 500 event in Basel is about to be canceled. The tournament director Roger Brennwald pointed to the Swiss Telebasel .
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit:
Jun 18, 2020, 07:04 pm
It was only on Thursday that the organizers of the ATP 500 event in Vienna gave hope to the fans, asserting in a press release that it is looking pretty good with a staging in October. Yes, the organizers around tournament director Herwig Straka even flirt with fans. The situation for the ATP 500 event in Basel looks much worse. As can be seen from media reports by some Swiss media, an application has already been made to the ATP to refuse to swing fans and patrons with the message that "there is almost certainly no chance".
"Unfortunately, the corona virus has several match balls to spoil the game," said tournament director Roger Brennwald to the Swiss Telebasel. For the organizers would not be able to host the event without a spectator. The cost of providing the hall alone would exceed the budget of a "ghost tournament". Assuring the ATP that the prize money could be reduced by up to 40% also helps little.
Vienna with top participants?
An event with spectators is also considered unrealistic. According to Telebasel, in October there was permission to play ice hockey games with spectators, but the tournament director in Basel considered a similar regulation to be unrealistic: "But social distancing cannot be implemented in an indoor tournament with more than 10,000 visitors and employees per day" Brennwald said.
The Basel organizers will probably have to wait until 2021 before the 50th anniversary edition of the tournament can go ahead. For the organizers in Vienna, however, the cancellation of their Swiss colleagues could result in an additional increase in the level of the field of participants. This year the largest tennis tournament in the country would have collided with the Olympic Games and the event in Basel. As is known, Olympia has already been canceled, Basel is now close to it. In October, the entire top of the world could gather in the Wiener Stadthalle. Whether with or without a spectator, that will be shown.