MUMBAI (INDIA) – When the WTA announced a provisional list of tournaments for the rest of a season that will be defined by the COVID-19 outbreak last week, one name above all stood out — the Wuhan Open.
It was in the central Chinese city, which is the home of China’s first Grand Slam champion Li Na, that the novel coronavirus first emerged before spreading to the rest of the world. This forced the suspension of professional tennis in early March.
Wuhan has accounted for the vast majority of China’s coronavirus deaths to date and the city was subject to one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, lasting 76 days.
“To go through that, to overcome that, I think it’s huge,” the tournament’s co-director Brenda Perry told Reuters from her home in Auckland.
“It’s huge symbolism and I think very inspiring for everybody there.
“At the moment that’s one of the first to experience the closest to being back to normal that we see around the world. It’s a very hopeful story for not just Wuhan but for China, for the world, of overcoming a huge challenge.”
When a cluster of new cases in May sparked fears of a second surge, Wuhan tested 9.9 million people out of a population of 11 million.
“I feel that Wuhan did some incredible job on recovery,” Perry said.
“I don’t think we hear much about that. Not as much as the fact that COVID-19 started in Wuhan. And they have almost everything back to normal, whether it’s transport or restaurants or cinemas, people going back to work in the offices or their industries.”
Perry said she had been in touch with the local organising team on a daily basis as they prepare to start the tournament on Oct. 19, pending government approval and confirmation that players will be able to travel.
“I’ve never heard from Wuhan, ‘we can’t do this’,” she said, adding that a final call on the event was expected by early August.
“In many ways Wuhan is fortunate that the tournament is towards the end of the calendar and it’s got the maximum time for recovery.”
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field
