Delay to Australian Open shows the power the grand slams have – many lesser tournaments are likely to bite the dust
If any normalcy remained in the sporting world this year, this week would have marked the first days of the 2021 tennis season. Until just a few weeks ago, this was to be the period in which players bade goodbyes to their families before flying to Melbourne to begin their fortnight of quarantine before the start of the Australian Open. Instead, most players still do not know where they will be in three weeks’ time, when the season begins.
As things stand in these ever-shifting pandemic conditions, there will be an Australian Open. The tournament is scheduled to be moved from 18 January to 8 February and the players will likely spend two weeks in a modified quarantine at a hotel from the middle of January.
Related: Tennis owes a debt to its supporting cast counting the cost of lockdown
It's a new standard of living. We will see a lot of tournaments dying because of sponsors that cannot do it any more
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