Tennis world divided on whether to play or not to play in front of empty stadiums

Former US player Andy Roddick spoke on how the top players are reacting to possibly playing the Grand Slams and bigger events in empty stadiums.

Hyderabad: As the sporting world continues to grapple with the Covid-19 crisis, tennis world are airing their views on whether to play or not to play in closed door stadiums, particularly in Grand Slam tournaments.

Former US player Andy Roddick spoke on how the top players are reacting to possibly playing the Grand Slams and bigger events in empty stadiums.

Petra Kvitova, the top women’s player, opined that she would rather cancel Grand Slam events than play without fans.

Roddick pleaded with Kvitova to think about players who are No. 70, 80, 90 in the world and to the tennis fans that are starving for content right now.

The world No. 12 is not the only player who is sharing reservations, as Roger Federer is also battling with the idea of competing with no fans.

“To play completely empty for the biggest tournaments, this will be difficult for me,” Federer said.

Former Grand Slam winner Jim Courier came in support of Roddick’s thoughts.”[Federer] gets more fan support than probably anyone ever has in the game, but I think Andy’s point is about taking the big picture here,” Courier said. “Thinking about the whole ecosystem of tennis, the fans, everyone that supports the game.”

Courier hopes that the top players will still compete and stressed that the full context of the Federer and Kvitova’s quotes are missing so no one should criticize their statements too harshly.

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