STARNBERG, March 20, 2020
No professional tennis tournaments will be played anywhere in the world until at least 7 June. Pablo Andujar, one of nine Spanish players ranked inside the Top 100 on the ATP Tour, will be affected by the forced break in a special way. The World No. 53 is the defending champion of two ATP Challenger tournaments in Marbella and Alicante. Both events were set to be played in Spain in April. Andujar also finished runner-up to Frenchman Benoit Paire at the ATP 250 Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech, Morocco, last year.
The Cuenca native is quite lucky in the circumstances. With the ATP deciding not to remove rankings points during the period of tournaments affected by the coronavirus, players won’t be penalized for not having any opportunity to defend their 2019 results.
In an interview with Marca.com, Andujar spoke about his time at home and how he learnt about the suspension of the tour.
“I am concerned about the current situation, like everyone else. Halfway to Indian Wells, we stopped at a petrol station when the mail arrived that the tournament had been cancelled. I spent 20 minutes thinking about what to do. That same day we took a flight back to Valencia,” Andujar told the Spanish national daily sport newspaper.
“Now until June I cannot play. But as far as it goes, I am enjoying time with my children and my wife, which is normally pretty difficult with so much travel. I am doing everything we are told. If I go out, I do it with gloves and before I go to the supermarket I use the hand sanitizer at the entrance to make the purchase.”
❗️TODOS EN CASA❗️
🎾 Los tenistas @AndujarPablo y @PedroMPortero
🧘🏻♂️ piden trabajo y paciencia#QuédateEnCasaConTDP pic.twitter.com/CxVqPIwy7B— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) March 18, 2020
Does he have the chance to practice? “I have an exercise bike, some dumbbells and elastic bands, which I use for an hour per day. I can’t do anything else because everything is closed,” he said. “Tennis players always set goals and now we have none. For me the goal is to stay as fit as possible.”
Andujar also tries to keep up his social contacts via digital media.
“I am in touch with Marcel Granollers, as we have been friends for a very long time as well as with colleagues from Tennis Valencia like Pedro Martínez, Bernabé Zapata, Dani Gimeno and Carlos Taberner. We use a chat group to talk to each other.”
