On a spot for Tennis Channel’s “My Tennis Life” two-time doubles and five-time mixed doubles Grand Slam champion Jamie Murray talked about the shock he felt when the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells was cancelled and he pondered what life might be like for tennis players over the next few months as the Coronavirus epidemic wreaks havoc on large events across the globe.
“Kind of in a bit of shock about it, and also what’s going to happen with the tour now,” Murray said in a video (click to watch Murray’s full statement on Twitter below).
“Obviously a lot more events, especially ones in Europe, there’s a lot kicking off in those countries,” Murray continues. “With regards to Coronavirus, what kinds of sanctions will be put in place? We could be potentially be looking at not having a tour for the next four to six months until this gets under control, I guess. I wonder why they didn’t want to play the tournament behind closed doors either and just kind of not let the public in. I wonder if that was under consideration or not but I guess we are going to find out more in due course.”
The Coronavirus has hit Europe hard this week and just today Italy went over 10,000 confirmed cases even as it imposes nationwide limitations to travel.
The United States went over 800 cases on Tuesday afternoon.
The Spanish Tennis Federation released a statement that all of its tennis tournaments, professional or otherwise, would be played without spectators in attendance until further notice.