Tennis News

3 Australian Open Stadia To Be At Least 25% Capacity

Tennis Australia today announced that ticket sales for the Australian Open 2021, set to take place from 8-21 February, will begin at 25 per cent capacity in the Grand Slam’s three main stadiums: Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and John Cain Arena.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, tournament organisers are taking new steps to ensure the safety of those at Melbourne Park, including dividing the venue into three zones, with each including one of those three stadiums.

“As we work closely with the Victorian government, [we] hope to be in a position to increase our numbers as we get closer to the event,” Tournament Director Craig Tiley said in a press release.

The Australian Open has a COVIDSafe plan, part of which includes tickets being sold in family “pods” of between one and six tickets each to help with social distancing. Tickets will be digital in 2021 to minimise touchpoints and help with contact tracing.

In addition, the start times of sessions will be staggered to help avoid overcrowding, with Rod Laver Arena and Margaret Court Arena sessions beginning at 11 a.m., and John Cain Arena starting at 12 p.m.

“The AO will be a great celebration for Melbourne and all Victoria after an incredibly tough year,” Tiley said. “Although our event will look a little different as we prioritise the safety of everyone, it’s going to be a fantastic opportunity to come together and experience many of the best things about Melbourne – live, world-class sport in an exciting festival atmosphere.”

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Andy Murray beats Cameron Norrie at Battle of the Brits

Andy Murray continues in promising form at the Battle of the Brits, beating Cameron Norrie in straight sets.

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Nadal Honoured With Sportsmanship Award: ‘This Trophy Means A Lot’

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal has been selected by fellow players as the winner of the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award in the 2020 ATP Awards. The Spaniard receives this honour for a third straight year and fourth time overall (2010, 2018-2020) for his fair play, professionalism and integrity on and off the court.

“It means a lot for me to have this trophy one more time, the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. I’m going to put this trophy next to the other ones in a very special place here,” said Nadal, speaking from the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar’s museum in Manacor.

“Thank you very much to all my colleagues on Tour for thinking that I am the right one to receive this sportsmanship award. When someone asks me how I want to be remembered, I always answer, ‘I want to be remembered [as] a good person more than a good tennis player.’ That’s why this trophy means a lot.”

“I want to be remembered as a good person more than a tennis player. That’s why this trophy means a lot.”@RafaelNadal | #ATPAwards pic.twitter.com/0n52VBbXTd

— ATP Tour (@atptour) December 21, 2020

The Spaniard has won an ATP Award in each of the player-voted categories: Newcomer (2003), Most Improved (2005), Comeback (2013) and Sportsmanship (2010, 2018-2019). He was also named Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year in 2011.

Nadal claimed a historic 13th Roland Garros crown in 2020, bringing his Grand Slam haul to 20 major titles. He also won the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in Acapulco and helped to lead Spain to the inaugural ATP Cup final. 

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Season Portrait: Dominic Thiem

Over the course of eight days, ATPTour.com is serving up a season snapshot of the eight players who qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals. The series is illustrated by intimate portraits shot by British photographer Simon Owen. Yesterday, we looked at Daniil Medvedev’s year. Today, we examine Dominic Thiem’s season.

Memorable Moment
In a nerve-wracking US Open final in which Thiem was so tense that he was physically unable to uncork his blistering backhand, the Austrian willed himself to victory against Alexander Zverev in a fifth-set tie-break to claim his first Grand Slam title. Thiem became the first men’s Grand Slam champion born in the 1990s and the first player in more than 16 years to rally from two sets down in a major final.

Key Stat
With his epic two-hour, 54-minute semi-final victory over Novak Djokovic in the Nitto ATP Finals semi-finals, Thiem became the second man after Andy Murray to collect five or more wins against each member of the Big Three: Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Thiem’s record against the Big Three over the past two years is an astonishing 9-3.

Quotable
“I hope [winning the US Open] doesn’t change my life because my life cannot depend on success. That would be wrong. But I hope it definitely changes my career.”

The Road Ahead
In 2021, Thiem will fight to become the first player outside the Big Four (Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Murray) to break into the Top 2 of the FedEx ATP Rankings in more than 15 years.

Photo: Simon Owen/Wonderhatch

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Season Portrait: Rafael Nadal

Over the course of eight days, ATPTour.com is serving up a season snapshot of the eight players who qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals. The series is illustrated by intimate portraits shot by British photographer Simon Owen. Today, we examine Rafael Nadal’s memorable year.

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Memorable Moment
Nadal continued to rewrite the record books in 2020 when he captured a 13th Roland Garros title, a unique benchmark without rival in tennis history. Nadal’s comprehensive dismissal in the final of his great rival Novak Djokovic 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 was his 100th match win on the Parisian terre battue. The victory also saw Nadal equal Roger Federer’s record haul of 20 majors.

Key Stat
Nadal became just the fourth player in the Open Era to reach 1,000 match wins. He left Roland Garros with a tantalising 999 victories and was forced to wait almost a month before returning to the French capital to hit the milestone with an opening-round win at the Rolex Paris Masters. Jimmy Connors (1274), Roger Federer (1242) and Ivan Lendl (1068) are the other players with 1,000 Open Era match wins.

Quotable
“Honestly, [the label of greatest ever] doesn’t matter to me much. I’m happy with my career. At the moment, it’s clear that I’m one of the two. We’ll see what happens in the next few years: what Djokovic does, what Federer does when he returns and what I keep doing. If all goes well, we’ll have time to analyse it when our careers are over.”

Road Ahead
After finishing in the Top 2 of the FedEx ATP Rankings for a record 12th time in 2020, Nadal will look to push back to No. 1 in 2021. Competition for top spot could be among an expanded field. Old rival Novak Djokovic will be the leading contender, but Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev finished 2020 strongly to be in position to contend for No.1 next year.

Tomorrow… Novak Djokovic

Photo: Simon Owen/Wonderhatch

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Charity Profile: Marcus Daniell

Highlights
Marcus Daniell became involved with the effective altruism movement, which focusses on using one’s resources to do the most good, in 2015. The Kiwi believes in the importance of effective giving — finding ways to make the most out of charity dollars to earn the most positive, tangible impact possible.

The doubles player, who has climbed as high as No. 34 in the FedEx ATP Doubles Rankings, donates between five and 10 per cent of his annual income to charity. While tournaments were not going on during the COVID-19 pandemic, Daniell began to think about how he could further spread the cause.

Daniil knew he would have to socialise the importance of effective giving in the world he knows best: tennis. On 30 November 2020, he founded High Impact Athletes.

“The reality is if I donate five per cent of my income, I’m one person and that’s great. It’s a beautiful thing. If I can convince one other person to donate five per cent of their income, I’ve basically just doubled my own impact and on it goes,” Daniell said. “The more people you can bring with you, the more impact you can have on the world. That’s where the idea of High Impact Athletes started, the idea of, ‘Okay, I don’t know any athletes who have heard of the effective altruism movement before. I think it’s an extremely powerful and compelling message, the idea that we should really care where we donate to, because some charities are literally 1,000 times more impactful than others. Let’s try to get as many people in my field on board as possible.’

“Even further down the line, we could grow a massive snowball here, because athletes have huge audiences. If I can get people on board who really understand the idea of giving effectively, and they can convince their audiences, even if it’s just one per cent of their audience… that’s a huge number. That was the conception of this idea.”

Learn More About High Impact Athletes

Charities And Causes
High Impact Athletes focusses on two main areas: environmental impact and extreme poverty.

Some of the charities HIA aligns with in the environmental impact area include The Clean Air Task Force, The Humane League and The Good Food Institute. Extreme poverty-related charities HIA supports include the Against Malaria Foundation, Living Goods and Seva.

Several tennis players, including Stefanos Tsitsipas and Jan-Lennard Struff, have committed to supporting High Impact Athletes in some capacity.

“For athletes like us it is necessary to not only lead by example with values like a hard-work attitude and fairness in our sport,” Struff said. “We also have the responsibility and influence to help make this world better. High Impact Athletes looks for the most effective ways to do this.”

Daniell has been heartened by the positive response from many players he has spoken to.

“The response so far from the players has been amazing. Really, really positive,” Daniell said. “That for me is particularly positive because this was just an idea in my head six months ago, and now in the first couple weeks I feel like it’s been validated as a concept.”

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