Julien Benneteau: It Will Be Difficult for Fed Cup to be Held as Scheduled

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The captain of the French Davis Cup team Julien Benneteau says that he thinks the Fed Cup finals in Budapest will be impacted after the cancellation of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Speaking to L'Equipe, Benneteau, who travelled to Indian Wells with Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Benoit Paire, learnt shortly after reaching their hotel about the cancellation. “It is obviously a surprise. And the first questions we ask ourselves, what about next? We are trying to organize our return, by Tuesday or Wednesday, thinking that Miami has a good chance of being cancelled ...

The big question is to see what will happen in the coming months, to know if the players will find themselves in a situation of technical unemployment if the tournaments are cancelled. As far as Indian Wells is concerned, I just talked to people on the player board, all players should get the prize money in the first round.

For the rest, we have private insurance, but which only covers us in the event of injuries. If the problem persists, it will probably be necessary for ATP to manage to organize something on this subject, even if, obviously, the priority is to find solutions to the health crisis.

Benneteau continues to say that he thinks the Fed Cup will also be impacted. "Tennis will be impacted, that's for sure. Today, I do not see how for example the final stages of Fed Cup in Budapest (April 14-19) can be maintained on the scheduled date." So far, there has been no official comment about the Miami event or any of the other tournaments being cancelled by either the ATP or WTA Tour and they have said they will monitor the situation as they go forward.