Bad news for the fans in Basel as the local ATP500 will most probably be canceled. The event was meant to take place from the 24th of October. However, the biggest star of the tournament, Roger Federer, declared that he would skip it this year after getting his second procedure to his knee. The Swiss legend conquered the tournament for the 10th time last year.
The organization of the tournament is not very comfortable about staging the tournament while following the social distancing measures and they asked the ATP to cancel the event this year. Federer was used to throwing a lovely pizza party for the ballboys. Unfortunately, that has to be postponed to 2021.
Tournament president Roger Brennwald released the following statement:
“Social distancing is not possible in an indoor tournament. In our opinion, the protection of people, players and guests from around the world cannot be guaranteed, even if all preventive hygiene measures are respected.”
There are speculations that Hamburg will take over the slot that would be freed by the demise of the tournament in Basel.
Roger Federer in 2020
Now ranked no.4, Roger played his last match on the 30th of January when he capitulated to Novak Djokovic 7-61 6-4 6-3 in the semifinal of the Australian Open.
Roger Federer’s most significant performance of this season was getting to the semi-finals at the Australian Open.
