Rafael Nadal has said he is very pessimistic about the possibility of tennis returning to normal any time soon because of the new coronavirus pandemic that shut down the sport last month.

Professional tennis has been suspended until the end of July, at the earliest, and the Spaniard said on Sunday that serious problems stand in the way of a resumption.

“From my point of view, I’m very pessimistic that the circuit can resume normal activity,” the world number two said in an online chat organised by the Spanish tennis Federation.

“In tennis, you need to travel every week, stay in hotels, go to different countries. Even if we play without an audience, to organise any event you need a lot of people involved, which cannot be ignored. At an international level I see a serious problem.”

The coronavirus outbreak has decimated the world sports calendar, forcing the postponement of the Olympic Games, which includes tennis, and the cancellation of Wimbledon.

French Open organisers have rescheduled that event for the end of September, shortly after the U.S. Open, although Nadal said public health took priority over tennis tournaments.

“We have already said many times we are in a very difficult moment, for everyone,” Nadal added.

“Step-by-step it looks like things are slightly less bad, but we’ve been through one and a half very tough months, lots of irreparable losses and other losses that are less important, but without doubt will cause suffering in society in the following months.

“I hope it will be months not years because it’s also an economic issue as well. Lots of people are going to lose their jobs. These are sad moments when you see so many people dying.”

Nadal, 33, said that even when tennis does resume the players will need to recover their fitness levels.

“It will be a very tough job to regain fitness and you will need lots of discipline and lots of suffering,” he said.

“The sooner we can resume activity the better. From the point of view about going back to competitions, I’m pessimistic. But there are many other things more important than tennis.”

Spain has been especially badly hit by the virus with 223,759 infections and 23,190 deaths.

Nadal is due to play in a ‘virtual’ Madrid Open starting on Monday with 32 of the world’s best players swapping rackets for gaming controls in a computerised version of the tournament.

Meanwhile, World number three Dominic Thiem has rejected the notion that the top tennis players should chip in to help lower-ranked competitors who are struggling financially due to the pause in tournaments because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. World number one Novak Djokovic last week urged players to contribute to a fund set up by the sport’s major governing bodies to help players affected by a shutdown which began in March and will continue at least until mid-July.

But Austrian Thiem said he felt there were sections of society that needed more urgent help during the economic crisis caused by the pandemic than his fellow competitors.

“No tennis player is fighting to survive, even those who are much lower-ranked. None of them are going to starve,” Thiem told Austrian newspaper Krone on Sunday.

Thiem, 26, who has reached three finals at grand slams since 2018, losing each time, criticised the attitude of some players on the lower-tier Futures circuit, which he said meant they did not deserve handouts from the sport’s top players.

“There are many, many players who don’t put the sport above everything else and don’t live in a professional manner. I don’t really see why I should give such players money. I’d rather give money to people or organisations that really need it,” he added.

“None of us top players got anything handed to us, we all had to fight our way up. I don’t have the guarantee in any job that I will do well and earn lots of money.”

Reuters