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Jamie Murray planning British tennis event as a ‘Wimbledon replacement’

By Brandon Daniels

Britain's Jamie Murray (L) and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US play against Croatia's Nikola Mektic and Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova during their mixed doubles final match on day thirteen of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on February 1, 2020. (Photo by William WEST / AFP) / IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE (Photo by WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)
Britain's Jamie Murray (L) and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US play against Croatia's Nikola Mektic and Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova during their mixed doubles final match on day thirteen of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on February 1, 2020. (Photo by William WEST / AFP) / IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE (Photo by WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images) /
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The cancellation of the Wimbledon Championships, as well as the rest of the grass-court season, has left a huge void in British sports. Being one of the biggest sporting events of the year in the country, British tennis fans are left without one of their favorite events. However, plans have recently come up regarding a ‘Wimbledon replacement’.

Jamie Murray, one of the ATP Tour’s top doubles players and the brother of Andy Murray, is organizing an all-British tournament to fill the gap of tennis without Wimbledon. The tournament will consist of eight players in two round-robin groups and will be played on hard courts without fans. Additional government safety procedures would be needed if the tournament were to take place in the proposed time frame. As of now, the players involved are Andy Murray, ATP #28 Dan Evans, and #44 Kyle Edmund.

The BBC will also look to show alternative programming at the All-England Club throughout Wimbledon’s dates of play (June 29th-July12th), as the event is the BBC’s premier sporting event each year. Sue Barker, the BBC’s top analyst for the event, will look to broadcast a daily show from the Club featuring tennis’ top players and their various Wimbledon stories from the past.

"“We intend to fill the fortnight with tennis action and chat,” said Barker during an interview with Sportsmail. “The plan is to film links around Wimbledon or present live from there if it is safe to do so.”"

The Wimbledon Championships were canceled on April 1st for the first time since 1945 due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

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