Spanish tennis president hopes for return to courts in autumn

Miguel Diaz is hoping that tennis could return in 2020 as sporting events across the world remain suspended due to coronavirus pandemic.

The French Open has been postponed to September, 2020, because of the conoravirus.

The president of the Spanish tennis federation (RFET), Miguel Diaz, said on Thursday that he hoped the sport could return to the courts “in the last quarter of the year” after the schedule was decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think that in the last quarter of the season we will be able to see tennis again, we don't know if it will be with fans in attendance or without, but I think our sport will return to the courts,” said Diaz, in a statement released by RFET.

In Spain, he said, “we have had to suspend dozens of tournaments that were on the calendar” at all professional levels.

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Top-level tournaments such as the Madrid Open, a joint ATP and WTA event, and the Barcelona Open and Mallorca Open, both on the ATP Tour, have been scratched in the aftermath of the rescheduling of the French Open and the cancellation of Wimbledon.

Diaz said it was “logical” that Wimbledon decided to cancel, but added: “I think that now tennis becomes secondary.”

“What is needed is to heal.”

In Spain, which is under lockdown at least until April 11, the total number of coronavirus deaths on Thursday passed 10,000.