New Zealand to stage tennis tournament as COVID-19 lockdown restrictions ease

As New Zealand authorities have begun easing coronavirus lockdown restrictions, the country will reportedly stage a team-based tennis tournament for local-based men’s players from June 3. The event will be marking the southern hemisphere’s first pro competition since the pandemic brought the global sport to a halt. While speaking to an international media outlet, Tennis New Zealand on May 25 said that all 112 matches of the ‘NZ Premier League’ will be played in Auckland without spectators but broadcast lives on a sports channel or the YouTube channel. 

Nearly after two-month lockdown, as the authorities gave a green light to some professional sports to restart competition, Tennis New Zealand High-Performance Director Christophe Lambert reportedly said that training without a goal is not possible for professional and competitive athletes. While speaking to the media outlet, Lambert added that the NZ Premier League offers opportunities for the players to have a home base competitive environment. He also said that with the league the younger players will also get the experience needed to perform at the highest level. 

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As per reports, tennis’ top professional tours, the men’s ATP and women’s WTA, have been shut down since March 8. The country currently has no players in the top 500 of the ATP single rankings so the league will, therefore, be padded out with doubles specialists, college players and NZ-based foreign players. 

NZ-born Ben McLachlan and world number 77 Briton Cameron are reportedly two of the foreign entrants. The upcoming event, which is co-sponsored by Tennis New Zealand and Auckland-based Lavie Tennis Academy, will reportedly feature 24 players split into wight teams of three competing across three weeks of round-robin and finals play. 

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NZ eases lockdown 

Meanwhile, last week, NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Arden had declared that the country would now move from level three to level two implying that more services would be open. With nearly 1,500 cases of coronavirus and 21 fatalities, New Zealand also became one of the first countries outside China on April 27 to claim that it has ‘eliminated’ the COVID-19 disease. Arden had also said that she resorted to staggering reaping of the country to avoid the fresh wave of cases. Moreover, the government has also decided to still limit the gatherings to very low people so that social distance can be maintained even when outdoors.

(Image: Rep/Unsplash) 

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