Rafael Nadal during an exhibition match against Roger Federer on February 7, 2020 in Cape Town. - Halden Krog / AP / SIPA

Rafael Nadal does not see how the tennis season will be able to resume, even in a few weeks. “Tennis is a global sport, we go from country to country, we have to mobilize a lot of people. It seems difficult to me that a big tournament can be played in the short or medium term, "declared the Spaniard, number 2 world, Wednesday evening, in a special emission diffused by the radios Onda Cero and Cope.

Like many sports, tennis has stopped completely since the beginning of March due to the coronavirus pandemic. After announcing a postponement of Roland Garros from late spring to early fall, Wimbledon preferred to throw in the towel and cancel its 2020 edition.

How Wimbledon came up with the idea of ​​insuring themselves against a pandemic via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/atPhnxfns3

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Last week, Andrea Gaudenzi, the boss of ATP, the men's professional circuit, said he hoped to be able to resume the season in August, in order to save "three Grand Slams and six Masters 1000", although different scenarios remain under study including that of a shutdown until next year.

Nadal, crowned 19 times in the Grand Slam including 12 on the clay of Roland Garros, also found it "very difficult" to resume behind closed doors, as football envisions, even if he would be "delighted" to be able do it.

"We have to wait a few months", for Djokovic

The world number 1, Novak Djokovic, also estimated during this program that playing behind closed doors "is not an easy decision". "I'm ready, but I think we have to wait a few months," added the Serbian, winner of the last Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, in early February.

For Nadal, the current priority is to fight the pandemic because "many people are living in a terrible situation". "At present, tennis is far from my priority," assured the player, who last month launched with basketball player Pau Gasol an appeal to Spanish sportsmen to donate money to the Red Cross. . "Our goal is to reach 11 million euros and we are already at 7 million," he said.

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  • Coronavirus
  • Sport
  • Tennis
  • Rafael Nadal