Tennis is Back & Nothing's the Same

Anyone who thought the most jarring sight in tennis would surely be matches played in empty stadiums got another reminder of the sport’s ‘new normal’ this past weekend. At the Palermo Ladies Open, the first official tennis tournament since the coronavirus lockdown in March, newly-crowned champion, Fiona Ferro of France, stood clutching her shining silver trophy with gloved hands, her delight obscured by the blue disposable mask across her face. Welcome to post-COVID tennis.

For Ferro, an unseeded 23 year-old who was undefeated in exhibition events leading up to Palermo, it was an impressive week. Racing through 5 matches with the loss of just a set, she dispensed with No. 4 seed Anett Kontaveit in the final, with her solid serve and well-timed power. "I had a good intensity throughout the whole match, I didn’t miss a lot, made a lot of winners, so I’m really happy to have the trophy with me,” she said.

Ferro will enter the Top 50 this week, and stands poised to be a breakout star in this bizarre year, in which form is hard to gauge, and tennis rankings, frozen since the March lockdown, will finally see movement. Following a trophy ceremony in which both finalists wore PPE, Ferro was mercifully given a moment to hold her prize aloft, sans gloves and mask.

This is tennis now, and while it’s surely better than no tennis, Roger Federer’s stated disinterest in playing without crowd support may end up being a prescient decision. Few tennis moments are as potent as Federer in the latter stages of a Slam, with the full-throttle support of the crowd. The sun setting on his glittering career, amidst scattered applause and masked emotions, will surely be one of the most depressing curtain calls of all time.

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