Paris (AFP)

The Covid-19 brings the world of tennis into chaos and many players believe that we can draw a line under the 2020 season. But in an attempt to save the circuit, organizers and authorities continue to study recovery scenarios.

With the cancellation of Wimbledon and the entire grass season on Wednesday, the men's (ATP) and women's (WTA) professional circuits are suspended until July 13 ... for the moment. Because the US Open is currently maintained on schedule (August 31 to September 13), but the American Federation has stressed that it "is preparing for all eventualities", New York being the epicenter of the epidemic in the USA.

The first to be extremely pessimistic was the world No.1 Novak Djokovic, in mid-March when the coronavirus epidemic was requalified into a pandemic.

"Honestly, I don't know if we can play in Miami or any other event until the end of the pandemic," he said after the cancellation of Indian Wells (California), announcing immediately his return to Europe without waiting for the inevitable decision of the Florida tournament.

American prodigy Coco Gauff also envisioned the worst. "I put myself in the state of mind where we would no longer play the year (...) to stop taking my head," she said Tuesday on Instagram.

Frenchman Lucas Pouille, whose start to the season was delayed by an injury, barely had time to rent a house with a tennis court before the confinement was announced, to be at his best as soon as the tournaments resumed.

- Wild and Svitolina the last -

But his coach Amélie Mauresmo left him little hope. "No vaccine = no tennis," tweeted the ex-world No.1.

To date, the last winner on the main ATP circuit is therefore the Brazilian Thiago Wild, who won the title on March 1 in Santiago. In the women's category, Elina Svitolina won the WTA International de Monterrey on March 8.

And since then, nothing ... The players are playing with stoves at home: Novak Djokovic in his living room, when Rafael Nadal uses the instrument in his kitchen to prepare a meal.

Roger Federer, who is recovering from knee arthroscopy, showed how he tapped the ball against a wall in the snow. If the cancellation of tournaments during his convalescence was a blessing because the freezing of ATP points allowed him not to sink into the hierarchy, that of summer tournaments has more than enough to annoy him.

No Olympics in Tokyo, where he was aiming for the only title he misses, namely the gold medal in singles. And therefore no possibility of winning a 21st Major on the Wimbledon turf which has succeeded so much (8 titles).

- Cancel the season? -

In addition to the decision of the French Federation to reprogram Roland-Garros in the fall, the authorities are trying to save what can still be saved.

"It goes beyond the game. We have to save the furniture and think about the players for whom it is their livelihood," said Gaëtan Müller, organizer of the ATP and WTA tournaments in Lyon, for AFP.

"Me, I rather see the season start again in September" and end "December 15 instead of November 15", imagines Jean-François Caujolle, boss of the Marseille tournament.

According to his plan, and because he "does not imagine either that the American tour can be held" including the US Open, there would be room for a clay tournament in preparation for Roland-Garros, as Madrid.

"It would be a possibility," recognizes the boss of the Spanish Masters 1000 Gérard Tsobanian in L'Equipe.

With a season thus truncated, Caujolle also estimates that the Masters which brings together at the end of the year the 8 best players of the season and its equivalent for the under 21s would "not be legitimate" and that their cancellation "would open two weeks of more to overwrite certain tournaments. "

However, "the priority issue is to save people's lives and not the economic aspect of the circuit. It is not the priority to know if we can finish the season," said Samir Boudjemaa, organizer of the Montpellier tournament.

Moreover, Tsobanian pleads for "a deadline" from which "ATP and WTA will declare a white year", "stop everything on December 31, 2019 to start again on January 1, 2021". Not sure that Novak Djokovic, president of the players' council, accepts that his 8th coronation will be taken away from him at the Australian Open in February, his 17th major title which will bring him closer to Federer's coveted record.

© 2020 AFP