When tennis is stopped, it continues to reinvent itself

The US Open tennis should take place from August 31, we learned this Monday. But what marks Virginie Phulpin in tennis is that this sport has never been as alive as since it was stopped. 

It may seem odd, but in this period of forced cessation, the world of tennis is able to question itself and ask real substantive questions. As important as "what is tennis?". At the moment, coach Patrick Mouratoglou is organizing a competition in a totally new format in his academy, in the South of France. There are many players, rackets and balls, but otherwise it has little to do with what we know. These are 10-minute quarter-time matches, there are no sets, it goes very quickly because they only have 15 seconds break between two points, and when they are going to rest on their chair , they respond to interviews at the same time. In short, there is something to be confused and wonder what we are looking at. But the important thing is to try something new since we cannot play normally for the moment. Virginie Phulpin is not a fan of this format, she thinks that it will not survive the end of the health crisis, but it brings this sport to life. She finds it more interesting to shake up habits now rather than change the format of the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup for example without asking anyone's opinion. There, we fill a void, we don't replace a competition that gives tennis its soul. And the same goes for the charity tournament organized by Novak Djokovic in Serbia this weekend. She therefore finds that tennis shows that it is alive through these initiatives. 

The players are also expressing themselves a lot at the moment.

We are used to hearing Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. But there, players of all levels speak. This is the case for holding or not holding the US Open. There are real discussions, and that's how we advance a sport. The best in the world do not really want to go to New York, in particular because they cannot be surrounded by all their staff. The lowest ranked retort them that they cannot make ends meet and that the resumption of the circuit is a vital issue for them. And these tennis ranks find unexpected support. Richard Gasquet is anything but a non-grade, we rarely hear him complaining about the organization of tournaments. But there, he took a stand saying that for him, what was important, if the US Open was played, is that everyone can participate, from the 300th world to number 1. And he castigates what he called tennis business. Frankly, I didn't necessarily expect it. But it is gratifying that the players express themselves. Virginie Phulpin has the impression that they are regaining possession of their sport and that they listen to each other a little more. You see there is good news in 2020.