[SPORT] Masks, own towels, greeting with the elbow and empty stands: this has been the return of professional tennis in Spain

[YaKuZa--BoSs]

Moment of greeting between the two.

 

Australian tennis player Álex de Miñaur beat Spain's Pablo Andújar 6-2 6-3, in just under an hour and a half, in the first game played between professional athletes in Spain during the state of alarm caused by the pandemic of the covid-19.

With this meeting, the 'Region of Valencia Tennis Challenge' started, which will be held until next Sunday at the Cumbres del Sol Urbanization in the Alicante town of Benitachell and which also includes the Spanish tennis players Roberto Bautista and Pablo Carreño, who will complete this first working day.

This exhibition tournament, which is played on clay and without an audience, is configured with the league format of all against all, among these four tennis players who are among the 54 best classified in the ATP.

The match was played under strict sanitary measures, since both players arrived on the court with a sanitary mask, which they later took off to play, and their temperature was taken as indicated by protocol. The chair judge, wearing a mask and gloves, raffled the choice of service among the players, and later the three greeted each other by hitting their elbows.

 

The ball boys were also equipped with masks and gloves, although it was the tennis players themselves who hung their towels on the side of the court and came themselves to wipe off the sweat.

In the purely sporting plane, the young Australian talent, 21 years old and the son of a Uruguayan and a Spanish, was the clear dominator of the match, with very aggressive tennis, combined with skillful drops, which allowed him to beat Pablo Andújar with much authority.

 

De Miñaur, based in Alicante, did not accuse the inactivity of almost three months without competing and exhibited a high level before a player as experienced as Andújar, who at no time could impose his rhythm from the bottom of the track.