World News – AU – Tennis in 2021: Three topics of conversation and those to watch

PARIS: The 2021 tennis season kicks off next week with the men playing ATP tournaments in Delray Beach, Florida and Antalya, Turkey, while four of the top 10 female stars compete at the WTA event in Abu Dhabi at.

It’s a new starting plan for a year with many tournaments staying under a cloud due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought chaos to the 2020 season as the sport was suspended for most of five months. Wimbledon was canceled for the first time since World War II, the US Open was played behind closed doors and Roland Garros was delayed until September.

The 2021 Indian Wells tournament – often referred to as the « fifth Grand Slam » but the first event scrapped last year because of the virus – has already been postponed.

This year’s Australian Open will take place three weeks later than planned. All players must be quarantined upon arrival in Melbourne.

So far, the ATP has only confirmed a schedule up to the Miami Masters,. April ends, while the WTA has yet to announce plans for the Australian Open, which will take place on Jan.. February ends.

Roger Federer and Serena Williams will be turning 40 in 2021. Birthday with question marks about whether this season will be her last hurray.

Federer, whose record of 20 Grand Slam titles in 2020 was achieved by Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, has not played since the Australian Open last year as he has recovered from a knee injury.

The Swiss have already withdrawn from this year’s trip to Melbourne, clearing the way for Nadal to potentially win a record 21. Major win.

On the tour since 1998, Federer will be on the 8th. To be 40 years old on August 8, just a week after the men’s final at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics, where he is expected to chase an elusive individual gold medal.

In the meantime, US superstar Williams reached. September 40 – two weeks after the end of the US Open.

Williams will try again to compete with Margaret Court as 24-time Grand Slam champion.

However, her last triumph in the majors came in Australia in 2017 when she was pregnant.

Novak Djokovic, the reigning Australian Open champion and 17-time main winner, was the second man after Federer to spend 300 weeks as number one in the world last month. He is expected on 8. March Federer’s record of 310 weeks on the pile.

« To break the Rogers record for the longest time at No.. 1 to achieve and surpass. 1 and win as many slams as possible. « 

»He is Spaniard and wins titles on clay. Sound familiar? Where Rafael Nadal leads, others follow and 17-year-old Carlos Alcaraz seems to be the most obvious legacy of the 20-time grand winner.

»Alcaraz won three clay titles on the second stage Challenger Tour in 2020 and was named ATP Newcomer of the Year.

»He climbed 350 places in the world rankings and finished 2020 at 141 after hitting a career high of 136 in October. He was also the youngest player in the top 200 at the end of the year.

»The 18-year-old Canadian finished 2020 at 88 in the world, up from 209 at the end of the 2019 season.

»Only 5 feet 4 inches (1. The 6 m tall left-hander had a breakout run into the third round at Roland Garros, where two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova had to stop her progress.

»At the beginning of 2020, Montreal-born Fernandez qualified for her first WTA final in Acapulco, where she lost in three sets to veteran British player Heather Watson.

»Off the field, the teen is working on her footwork – learning salsa!

Australian Open, Tennis Australia, 2021, Association of Tennis Professionals, Melbourne Park, Women’s Tennis Association