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Belgium's Davis Cup and Fed Cup captain Johan van Herck says he has been in contact with the Belgian tennis players during the tennis shutdown and has advised them to keep physically active as far as possible while ensuring that they comply with local restrictions and advisories by the government.
Speaking to Sporza, van Herck says, "I have been in contact with our players, they do. I have no knowledge of illness or infections. There was, of course, unrest about the situation. When can we start again? Now there is still some clarity.
There are no tournaments until the beginning of June. That is annoying, but through that communication there is again some peace of mind. It will certainly take that long. The players can relax a bit. Everyone now trains a little at home, stays physically busy.
It is important to maintain a basic condition, to plan well: what do we do, when do we do that? They can do something for the specific tennis training. For the time being, it is stopped because the clubs are closed. Everything is done in consultation with the experts from the government.
" van Herck also spoke about the comeback of former World No. 1 Kim Clijsters, who returned to the tour after a seven year hiatus earlier this year and played two tournaments before the shutdown. “Naturally, this situation also has an impact on Kim's comeback.
She will have to reschedule, adjust her schedule. But she has played those two games, she will have learned a lot from that. If everything goes according to plan, she will soon be able to play tennis on grass, on hard court. The season that suits her well.
” van Herck adds that he thought the decision of the French Tennis Federation to move the Roland Garros event without consulting others was selfish and one-sided. "I think it is logical that the Fed Cup in Budapest was decided quickly.
In this way, there was certainty for the players and the costs could also be limited. Roland Garros suddenly comes with that new date in September. In my opinion they simply wanted to anticipate. What if, for example, Indian Wells or Miami had already worked out with their date.
It was important to get a place of your own. Bit one-sided, selfish. What about the play-offs for the Davis Cup? They coincide with Roland Garros. That means that we may not be able to select three players because they want to play the qualifications for Roland Garros.
That is not correct. Or still, take Joran Vliegen and Sander. Imagine if they make it to the second week of the US Open, then they have to go to Bolivia straight away and then quickly to Paris, which is pretty extreme, you get grass, hardcourt and clay on a handful of weeks.
Far too much has happened in recent months. There is also too little consultation. It is high time that all organizations came together and consulted to get everything back in order because this is not nice. But I realize this is going to be very difficult. ”