Nobody wants to play tennis behind closed doors - Fognini

Italian tennis star Fabio Fognini feels playing behind closed doors is not an option after speaking to his ATP colleagues about possible coronavirus contingency plans.

Tennis is currently reeling from the news that Wimbledon and the entire grass court season has been cancelled due to efforts to contain the pandemic.

At some point, the sport's governing bodies will have to come up with a plan to restart the Tours, which will not be easy given its global nature.

One possible solution is to play behind closed doors for a period but Fognini isn't having any of it.

"I heard from so many people when the ATP had to decide what to do," the world No 11 told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"Feliciano Lopez, who is also the director of the Madrid tournament, Stan Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov – we were all on the same wavelength, nobody wanted to play.

"Not even behind closed doors. Because sponsors matter a lot but we play for the public and it is the spectators who hold the tournaments.

"With empty stands, I played the Davis Cup in Cagliari and it was very sad."

- TEAMtalk media