Mumbai
Ash Barty is finding it tricky to maintain high intensity in training during the shutdown but the women’s world number one is hoping she will be back to her usual self with the flick of a switch when tennis resumes after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like other sports around the world, professional tennis screeched to a halt in early March as the virus spread quickly around the world. It will not restart until at least mid-July.
While Australian Barty, whose partner Gary Kissick is a golfer, has seen her golf game improve during the lockdown in Brisbane, her tennis training is in “a little bit of a holding pattern.”
“It’s kind of tricky to train with the same intensity as always,” Barty, who turned 24 on Friday, told the Sunday Herald Sun. “Obviously, we’re still not sure when we’ll go back.
“Now, it’s about maintaining for if and when we get an opportunity to play again this year, you can kinda flick that switch and go from there.”
The shutdown did not allow Barty to return to the United States to defend her title at the Miami Open, which catapulted her into the top 10 in the rankings before she finally sealed the top spot a few months later.
Barty is also the defending champion at Roland Garros, where she won her maiden Grand Slam title in Paris last June, but that has been postponed too.
This year’s French Open was moved to Sept. 20-Oct. 4 from its May start while the Wimbledon championships, which were set to begin in late June, were canceled.—AP
