Rafael Nadal believes older players have experience to recover in time after the enforced break. AP
Rafael Nadal believes older players have experience to recover in time after the enforced break. AP
Rafael Nadal believes older players have experience to recover in time after the enforced break. AP
Rafael Nadal believes older players have experience to recover in time after the enforced break. AP

Rafael Nadal wants Tour to resume only after all travel restrictions are lifted


Reem Abulleil
  • English
  • Arabic

Rafael Nadal believes resuming the tennis tour before all travel restrictions are lifted worldwide would be unfair to the players who won’t be able to make it to tournaments.

In a Zoom press conference call with international media on Thursday, the Spaniard was asked if the tennis circuit should restart if there was one country in the world where players still could not travel from.

“I think we have a worldwide tour. My feeling is we need to be clear, we need to be responsible, we need to be sending strong messages and we need to be a positive example for society,” said Nadal.

“We need to understand that we are suffering unprecedented situations, and my feeling is we need to come back when all the players from all the countries of the world are able to travel under safe circumstances. If not, in my personal opinion, we will come back, yes, and I probably will play, maybe yes, but my feeling will be that we are not being 100 per cent correct and I want to see my sport 100 per cent fair and correct, especially under these circumstances.”

'Situation not ideal'

Tennis is currently suspended until at least July 31. Organisers of the US Open and Roland Garros – the USTA and FFT – are still holding out hope for staging their tournaments later this year but Nadal is skeptical about whether their plans will actually materialise.

“I don’t know if we will be playing tennis again this year or not, that’s something that, today, is not worrying me much, honestly. What really worries me is coming back to normal life, and coming back to a healthy life and a healthy situation for most of the people,” explained the world No 2.

Nadal is the defending champion in both New York and Paris. The USTA are considering all possible scenarios for the US Open, including staging it behind closed doors, with no fans, and potentially limiting players to traveling to the tournament with just one member of their team.

“It’s not the ideal situation. If you ask me today if I want to travel to New York to play a tennis tournament, I will say, ‘No, I will not’. But in a couple of months, I don’t know how the situation is going to improve, hopefully it’s going to improve the right way,” said Nadal about potentially competing in the US Open under these circumstances.

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“And I’m sure that the people who are organising the event, the USTA, want a safe event, the same as the FFT, they want to celebrate the tournament if everybody is safe enough. I am confident that they will make the right decisions in the right moment.”

Back on court

Nadal started practicing again two weeks ago, but only for a couple of times per week, and not exceeding 90 minutes per session. He feels confident he would be ready to compete at a high level whenever the tour resumes, despite the lack of match play, but wants to protec his body in the meantime.

“I need to take things step by step. I am trying to avoid injuries, that’s the main thing today. To avoid injuries I need to practice step by step and increase the amount of work every week,” said the 34-year-old.

“I think the last couple of years I learned how to play good tennis without the need to play a lot of matches. I really think that I understand and found a way to be ready to compete at a very high level without playing a lot of matches before. I played a small amount of tournaments the last couple of years compared to the years before, I think it’s all about making the right preparation.

“I am confident that if I have enough time to prepare myself and to organise a little bit my calendar, I’m going to be competitive from the beginning.”

While some believe the current hiatus spells bad news for the older players, who are losing precious playing time before retiring from the sport, others see it as an advantage that could extend the careers of the 30-somethings club.

“I think the long breaks for the older bodies are tougher than for the younger bodies because it’s more difficult to come back to 100 per cent but at the same time of course we have the experience too,” said Nadal. “So I have the experience of injuries I had the past, so in some way we know how to come back.

“I am passionate about coming back on the tour and keep playing for a couple of years and keep enjoying the things I like the most – enjoying tennis in front of a full stadium with the energy of the crowd. I really hope we’ll be able to come back to this situation and enjoy.”

Lessons learnt

The 19-time Grand Slam champion says his main takeaway from these past few months is not taking things for granted, like being able to spend time with his family and friends.

“Humans have the ability to adapt to situations quick, but at the same we have the ability to forget about the negative things soon when we come back to a normal situation. The only thing that I learned is that we need to try not to complain every single day about stupid things,” said the Mallorcan.

One of the heavily-discussed topics in tennis during the current suspension of the circuit has been the idea of merging the ATP and WTA tours. Billie Jean King, the founder of the WTA, has long been a proponent of having just one governing body for both men's and women's tennis, and her idea has finally received the backing of some of the biggest names in the sport, thanks to a tweet from Roger Federer in April, who suggested it was time the two tours combined.

Nadal, who had been uncertain about his thoughts on a potential merger in the past, endorsed Federer’s post by tweeting: “Hey @rogerfederer. As you know per our discussions I completely agree that it would be great to get out of this world crisis with the union of men's and women's tennis in one only organisation."

Asked about what new information has led him to believe in the merger now, Nadal said: “I don’t have any information about that. It’s just an idea and just a message that Roger left there, and that’s it.

“I support it because I think that working like a single organisation in the perfect world is easier for everything. But that doesn’t mean that we need to play every single event as a combined event.

“The tours can keep working separately but work like in a single organisation. Why not? The feeling is it would be better, and less difficult in terms of organising.”

The National Archives, Abu Dhabi

Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.

Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en

Panipat

Director Ashutosh Gowariker

Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment

Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman

Rating 3 /stars

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.

Babumoshai Bandookbaaz

Director: Kushan Nandy

Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami

Three stars

ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

Results

3pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,400m, Winner: Lancienegaboulevard, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Fawzi Nass (trainer).

3.35pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Turf) 1,600m, Winner: Al Mukhtar Star, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.

4.10pm: Handicap Dh165,000 (D) 2,000m, Winner: Gundogdu, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer.

4.45pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,200m, Winner: Speedy Move, Sean Kirrane, Satish Seemar.

5.20pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Moqarrar, Dane O’Neill, Erwan Charpy.

5.55pm: Handicap Dh175,000 (T) 1,800m, Winner: Dolman, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.

FIGHT CARD

From 5.30pm in the following order:

Featherweight

Marcelo Pontes (BRA) v Azouz Anwar (EGY)

Catchweight 90kg

Moustafa Rashid Nada (KSA) v Imad Al Howayeck (LEB)

Welterweight

Mohammed Al Khatib (JOR) v Gimbat Ismailov (RUS)

Flyweight (women)

Lucie Bertaud (FRA) v Kelig Pinson (BEL)

Lightweight

Alexandru Chitoran (BEL) v Regelo Enumerables Jr (PHI)

Catchweight 100kg

Mohamed Ali (EGY) v Marc Vleiger (NED)

Featherweight

James Bishop (AUS) v Mark Valerio (PHI)

Welterweight

Gerson Carvalho (BRA) v Abdelghani Saber (EGY)

Middleweight 

Bakhtiyar Abbasov (AZE) v Igor Litoshik (BLR)

Bantamweight:

Fabio Mello (BRA) v Mark Alcoba (PHI)

Welterweight

Ahmed Labban (LEB) v Magomedsultan Magemedsultanov (RUS)

Bantamweight

Trent Girdham (AUS) v Jayson Margallo (PHI)

Lightweight

Usman Nurmagomedov (RUS) v Roman Golovinov (UKR)

Middleweight

Tarek Suleiman (SYR) v Steve Kennedy (AUS)

Lightweight

Dan Moret (USA) v Anton Kuivanen (FIN)

The%20Killer
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EDavid%20Fincher%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EMichael%20Fassbender%2C%20Tilda%20Swinton%2C%20Charles%20Parnell%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
GAC GS8 Specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo

Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh149,900

TOURNAMENT INFO

Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier

Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November

UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi

Qosty Byogaani

Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny

Four stars

In numbers

Number of Chinese tourists coming to UAE in 2017 was... 1.3m

Alibaba’s new ‘Tech Town’  in Dubai is worth... $600m

China’s investment in the MIddle East in 2016 was... $29.5bn

The world’s most valuable start-up in 2018, TikTok, is valued at... $75bn

Boost to the UAE economy of 5G connectivity will be... $269bn 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO

Asian Champions League, last 16, first leg:

Al Ain 2 Al Duhail 4

Second leg:

Tuesday, Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha. Kick off 7.30pm

How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now

Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.

The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.

1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):

a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33

b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.

2. For those who have worked more than five years

c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.

Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.

In numbers: China in Dubai

The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

Scores:

Day 4

England 290 & 346
Sri Lanka 336 & 226-7 (target 301)

Sri Lanka require another 75 runs with three wickets remaining