Tennis news - 'I can't see tennis returning soon' - Andy Murray pessimistic about return

A huge portion of the ATP and WTA tour seasons have been abandoned, with Wimbledon also falling victim to the pandemic, cancelling for the first time since the Second World War.

The US Open is still due to take place at the end of August in New York, with Roland Garros scheduled for late September, after being pushed back in the calendar from its traditional May-June slot.

Murray was due to make his latest comeback from his long-standing hip injury in March's cancelled Miami Open and though he and his fellow players are desperate to make their return, he says normal life will take priority over competitive sport.

"I’m sure all tennis players want to get back to competing and playing as soon as possible,” Murray told the Times.

"But right now that is not the most important thing. First of all, we want to get our normal lives back, just being able to go out, see friends, go to restaurants and have your normal freedoms.

"And then hopefully over time things will start to allow for travelling and sport will be able to go back to normal as well. But I don’t see that happening very soon.

"The first thing is to try and find a way to stop the virus spreading and once we’ve done that we’ll be able to do more and more normal things rather than thinking about competing in sport."

While there is no word on when people in the UK will be allowed to see loved ones again, it is heavily speculated that the Premier League will return in the first half of June, while it has also been reported that the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy could host competitive ATP and WTA matches, with players contained in hotels and a large testing capacity.

However, Murray would prefer not to expedite the return of professional sport and ensure the safety of fans and fellow athletes first and foremost.

“A lot of people want to watch sport again, so obviously the athletes and the players want to be competing,” Murray said.

“It’s entertaining and it’s something that lots of people enjoy. When you don’t get to see it for a while, people realise how much they love playing and watching it.

“But just because it’s difficult not to have sport just now doesn’t mean we have to speed things up. Let’s just focus on getting our normal lives back first and hopefully then all of the countries can sort out the virus properly.

“I’m obviously no expert on this but I assume the danger is when you go back to trying to do things too quickly like avoiding social distancing and then if we get back to international travel, then maybe there could be a second wave of infections and that maybe that would slow everything down again. That’s not what anyone wants.”