May Andy Murray never end his career. Should he do it anyway, one wishes him a long and pain-free life with this badly battered body, then please make a statement about the state of tennis twice a month. The Briton does not run a verbal slalom run around sensitive topics, and he also does not give Wischi-washi answers. He says how things really are – and then he says what he honestly thinks of them. Period.
For example, on this debate that broke out these days at the tennis tournament in Indian Wells. Only people who have been vaccinated against Covid are allowed on the facility, and they don’t even have to wear a mask inside.
All are vaccinated – except for a lot of those people come here for at all: According to the players’ association ATP, the vaccination rate for men is around 65 percent, and for women, according to the WTA, just over 60 percent. There are no exact numbers because, for example, people like Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece, won on Wednesday evening against the Australian Alex DeMinaur 6: 7, 7: 6, 6: 2) prefer to give Wischi-Waschi slalom answers: “I’m fine Sorry, but I am unable to provide any information about my medical situation. “
The numbers in tennis are extremely low compared to other sports. At the start of the season in the North American ice hockey league NHL on Tuesday, it was said that only four out of 800 players not are vaccinated – that’s 0.5 percent. In the NBA basketball league, the recent case of Kyrie Irving caused a stir because the Brooklyn Nets will not use him until he is vaccinated for indoor sports according to New York City rules. About 95 percent of NBA professionals are vaccinated.
Dominic Thiem wants to be vaccinated so that he can safely be there in Melbourne
Sure, these are disciplines in which athletes are employees of the clubs. Tennis professionals, on the other hand, are world-traveling I-AGs; on the pitch they earn what they play in tournaments – if they don’t take part, they get nothing. They don’t come into contact with other athletes so much on the pitch either, and in Indian Wells they try to minimize encounters with spectators and journalists as much as possible. (The latter, incidentally, protested in a fire letter to the players’ unions.) A direct comparison with other disciplines is therefore not necessarily expedient.
There are a few minor debates in Indian Wells, about the Covid-related postponement into autumn, for example, which is why the balls in the dry heat become as big as yeast dumplings and are therefore very difficult to accelerate. Or the speed of the courses (US Open winner Daniil Medvedev said after his defeat to Grigor Dimitrov: “It’s slower than on clay”), which means that some games with the many stops and sharp angles sometimes seem more like Mini tennis, in which players try to outsmart each other in clever net duels – that’s exciting, but not really tennis. But well, that can easily be changed, in the coming season the tournament should take place again in spring.
Before that there was the Australian Open, and that is why there is now a bigger debate. “If I were an ATP or WTA player, I would get vaccinated,” said Martin Pakula, Minister of Sports for Victoria, the Australian state in which the Grand Slam tournament is being held: “I don’t know if we’re not at all- Vaccinated people will be allowed in, that will be discussed at the federal and state level. “
Daniel Andrews, Prime Minister of Victoria, was alluding to Novak Djokovic – the world number one is apparently not vaccinated and repeatedly emphasizes that whether he does it is a private matter: “Titles will not protect you. What protects you: them first and second dose of vaccine. ” Incidentally, this should also apply to the rugby duel between Australia and England in December.
To put it simply, there are now three camps in the players’ garden: the vaccinated, such as Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic), who said: “No matter what happens: I will be there. I am vaccinated, which makes a lot of things easier.” There are people like Dominic Thiem (Austria) who declare that they want to be vaccinated soon so that they can be sure to be there in Australia. And there are players like Tsitsipas and Djokovic who point out that it is their decision whether or not to get vaccinated – and whether they want to inform the public about it or not.
“I respect the decisions of the government and actors,” says Zverev
Alexander Zverev, who won his round of 16 against Gaël Monfils (France) 6: 1, 6: 3, sums up the situation among the players aptly: “That’s a trick question. I know that a lot of players are talking about it right now. I don’t want anything against Tennis Australia say, but nothing against players who are not vaccinated. I respect the decisions of the government and actors, and I don’t want to be in the middle of what I’m not involved in – because it doesn’t concern me. “
At this point, Andy Murray needs a clarifying word, because: Nothing at all has been decided yet. The Australian (or Victorian) government may – but does not have to – prohibit non-vaccinated persons from entering the country. The vaccination rate in Australia is currently just under 65 percent. It is also possible that vaccinated people do not have to be quarantined; Non-vaccinated people, on the other hand, have to spend two weeks alone in a hotel room, as in the previous year. As long as there is no decision and no official rules for entry and participation, the debate remains in the subjunctive.
“It’s very, very strict in Australia, but people have also suffered a painful 18 months. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t be allowed to play at all,” says Murray: “You just have to arrive a few weeks earlier than anyone else. ” He says, and that is the key message in the debate: “It is still up to the players to decide.” He himself would be there, of course, because he was vaccinated; and he currently has no plans to retire before the Australian Open.