Whilst the tennis tour typically tries to follow the sun, there are times when the weather simply decides to go rogue and torrential downpours put a stop to matches and cause havoc with scheduling.
This week was a case in point. It’s mid-May and typically at this time of year, in this part of Italy, the sun shines on a daily basis. Not to be on this particular day! It has been raining since the early hours with no sign of let up – at least for today. The courts are totally underwater and will take hours to drain, as, when and if, the rain actually stops.
The first round of qualifying was completed yesterday but the second round is scheduled for today, along with half of the doubles draw and a handful of main draw first round matches – a total of 17. The club has three outdoor courts which are currently submerged, and a fourth under a ‘bubble’. This doesn’t bode well for the players scheduled to play – a long day ahead and no doubt many match cancellations.
Players are wandering around like lost souls – hustling to try and find nearby indoor courts to practice on but without success. Hotel lobbies and rooms are full of athletes and their coaches reading, watching TV, sleeping and generally getting more and more bored and frustrated. The tournament officials are beavering away trying to revise the schedule and fathom out how they are going to play 17 matches on one court – simple answer, they are not!
Fast forward to later in the day. All main draw and doubles matches have been cancelled. All but one of the qualifying matches have been re-scheduled to be played on the one indoor court on site – so a total of 7 – ambitious to say the least! Two lucky players get to go off site and play at another venue but the organisers are reluctant to put any more matches on at the alternative site – either because the courts have been pre booked by members of that club or, more likely, there is a fee involved which the organisers don’t really want to pay!
In typical, ‘sods law’ fashion, the first match on site takes in excess of 3 hours – not what anyone had hoped for. The second match goes on – another lengthy one. Players are still wandering around, unsure as to how to fill their day, getting twitchy at the prospect of a day without tennis. The tournament organisers manage to get a court at another local club so the last match that was scheduled gets to go on court. So at this stage there are still 4 matches to be played.
The next match (on site) eventually goes on court mid afternoon (the first 2 matches took over 5 and a half hours to complete!). The rain continues to pour and players have resigned themselves to the fact that the day is a complete wash out. They are bored, lethargic, and frustrated at the lack of things to keep them entertained but there is nothing more the organisers can do. There is no gym on site and the thought of sight seeing in the pouring rain really isn’t an attractive option.
Match number 5 takes over two and a half hours to complete (of course it does!). At around 6.30pm the sixth qualifying match goes on court (still two more to follow) – doesn’t bode well! Players wander off to dinner whilst those still scheduled to play have to hang around, hoping that this match is a quick one. But alas, it is not! In fact it takes in excess of 3 hours to complete at which time, the tournament organisers decide to postpone the last two matches due to be played – a nightmare for those players who have been waiting at the courts pretty much all day. The organisers however, had no choice as there are rules about the latest time matches can be started – after all, athletes (and organisers) do need to sleep at some stage.
Moving on once again, to the next day, and the sun is shining. The two unplayed matches are now rescheduled to take place in the ‘bubble’ (to ensure that all matches of that round are played under the same circumstances), and main draw and doubles matches are scheduled on the now, almost dry, outdoor courts. The players are ‘alive’ again – scrapping around to get on court for a hit, desperate to feel ball on strings once again. But practice time is limited as there are so many matches to be played.
Remarkably all goes to plan and the scheduled matches get completed but the day of rain has left its mark and at some stage during the week, some of the players will have to play two singles matches in one day, to ensure that the programme catches up and the timescale for the event does not over run. After all, most of the players have to be at another tournament somewhere in the world, by the end of the weekend. The tennis treadmill simply doesn’t stop. Sometimes, if the bad weather hangs around, then the doubles event does get scrapped (too bad if your player is a doubles specialist) and on very rare occasions, entire tournaments have been cancelled in recent years after one or two rounds of matches, although the organisers obviously try their best to avoid this.
Pro tennis must be one of the only sports where the length of matches cannot be predicted and competitors (and their support teams) have to simply hang around waiting to compete. Not only is bad weather a nightmare for tournament organisers but it also plays havoc with meal planning and warm up routines for players. So be warned, if traveling with a player, and bad weather hits, resign yourself to the fact that you may spend some of your days just watching the clock, letting life pass you by. Take a good book, or write a blog, make the best use you can of the day, as sometimes the weather is just so bad, and so unpredictable that even the best laid plans have to be abandoned.
#realitytennis
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