Hows the quarantine treating you

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FiReFTW

Legend
Hows the situation in your state/country, have you been able to play alot?

I haven't played for months due to lockdowns in my country, now they opened it up again, went to play yesterday after such a long time... now they lock it back up starting today lmao, for a few months probably... my country is ridicilous, a joke.
 

3loudboys

G.O.A.T.
London has fallen - in total lockdown with sanctions in place for people breaking lockdown. The mayor openly admitted that Covid is out of control and the UK now experiencing hard rules that really should have been implemented months back.

Tennis is a small consideration at the moment although we'd all like to be playing. Our health service is in crisis as it struggles to cope with the number of cases. One ray of hope is the vaccine being rolled out quickly so hopefully reducing the walrus's target population.

Where are you? Stay safe.
 

Cashman

Hall of Fame
In Australia. We are mostly back to normal, with some minor restrictions. Had a couple of months shutdown. No cases in our region since about July so everything is pretty relaxed.

Tennis stopped at our club for about three months in the middle of last year. They are back now, only difference is slightly reduced numbers at the club and temperature checks/attendance logging.
 

Dartagnan64

G.O.A.T.
In British Columbia it's too cold for outdoor play and indoor team sports have been banned.

So at our club it's singles tennis under the bubble. No doubles because that's apparently a "team". But at least we can play for now. Our curve is flat and our hospitalization and ICU numbers are stable so I suspect we can hold out at this level of activity for a while. 45000 people vaccinated in a province of 5 million so we've got a ways to go.
 

S&V-not_dead_yet

Talk Tennis Guru
SoCal [Southern California] has not locked the tennis courts like back in March-May. Doubles is still happening and there's no enforcement. The clubs seem to be mostly back in full swing. No one pays attention to the "every player must bring their own can of balls" rule. People mask up going in and out of facilities, for the most part.
 

WhiteOut

Semi-Pro
Indiana. Never missed a beat since the initial shut down for about 2-4 weeks ~march. Been playing singles and dubs indoors since the weather started getting cold/dark/rain in the fall. clubs have been open since ~May, but never really play indoors in the summer months anyway, so moved indoors in the fall like normal. no one ever did the '2 can' thing, fine by me. still wearing masks in the common areas, but once on court, the mask comes off. some places have removed benches/chairs. i never use them anyway (if i sit, I'm finished playing).
 

schmke

Legend
Seattle. Original shutdown in the Spring shutdown leagues and closed indoor facilities. Thankfully, the weather was reasonable and we could play outside, although some cities locked public/high school courts for several weeks, and we were able to play outdoors over the Summer. Indoor tennis also opened as we moved to phase 1.5/2 of reopening with no masks required during play, but had to be worn to/from the courts. That allowed our early start leagues (Adult 55+ and Mixed 18+) to be played Sep-Nov before indoor facilities were closed again in late November, just Mixed 18+ local playoffs were not completed. We've been closed for indoor tennis since then with just a few days warm/dry enough for reasonable outdoor tennis, but are supposed to open for indoor play again on Monday, but this time masks will be required during play. At no time of indoor tennis being allowed have we been limited to singles AFAIK.
 

travlerajm

Talk Tennis Guru
Indoor clubs locked down for a while, then re-opened, now locked down. Soon will re-open again.

But 2020 has personally been the year my tennis game found new heights.
In March, the Covid flex sched allowed me to play 3-4x per week outdoor 2.5h long sessions with my friend illegally in the boondocks where the police weren’t enforcing.

I started experimenting with racquet specs to keep the matches interesting, and stumbled into a spec that allows me to use a totally new fh technique that has miraculously transformed my fh from liability and limiting to solid and reliable. I rolled through my non-usta league singles season, and my usta indoor mixed seasons undefeated.

Then when the winter wet season started, I liberated myself from the constraint of indoor court availability, and continued playing regularly on wet courts, sometimes in the rain. Once we played in a torrential downpour and high winds with a 1/4” deep river coating the court surface. I continued to improve throughout the last several months.

My personal prove-it season starts next week, when I leave the country to test my new game against better players on red clay. I’m really curious to measure my improvement by seeing if my average scores against really good players who abused my weak fh 2 years ago will improve.
 

Return_Ace

Hall of Fame
Slowly going insane over here.

I have no issues with lockdown, just that they had to close courts. All i want to do is hit against the wall at the club, or work on my serve with a hopper of balls, but don't have anywhere to do that without the courts :cautious::mad:.
 

travlerajm

Talk Tennis Guru
One casualty of the lockdown for me was that my gym used the lockdown to replace the indoor racquetball courts with extra workout space in anticipation of the need for more Covid spacing.

I used to use the indoor wall as my test kitchen for new racquet spec recipes. I used to hit on the wall a lot more often than I actually played on a tennis court, especially in winter.
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
In Orange County (Southern California), private clubs and public courts were closed only for 6 weeks in March/April. Once my club re-opened in early May, the only restrictions enforced have been to wear masks off the court. The bar/restaurant has been closed for indoor dining for most of the year also. Otherwise, tennis on our outdoor courts has been packed all year with singles, doubles, group drills, coaching lessons, junior training etc. - up to 10 players on a court during group drills. The courts have been more busy than usual as more players (particularly juniors) are playing due to tennis being one of the few socially distanced activities you can do. USTA leagues have been suspended since last March, but there are local county weekday leagues going on for women.

I played 600 hours of tennis last year including 135 singles and 130 doubles matches along with more drills/lessons. In the summer, I was diligent about using hand sanitizer a lot on my racquet grip and throat during the breaks between games and not touching the balls if I didn’t need to. But, since it became clear that risk of transmission from surfaces and particularly soft surfaces like the felt on balls is minimal, I haven’t done this although I use sanitizer after the match ends. I also carry a collapsible camping chair to the court when I play doubles so that I don’t have to share a bench with my partner. I also am more careful about not getting too close to my doubles partners to discuss strategy - usually have my body/face turned away and stand still 4-5 feet away. We also don’t shake hands after matches and I have not felt safe to participate in any group drills.

The worst problem I see at my club in terms of what looks like unsafe activity is players sharing beer/wine/snacks sitting around outdoor tables after league matches and club-organized doubles events. These people are not wearing masks as they are eating/drinking and are within 2 feet of each other even if outdoors. I know of several players at my club who got the virus, but it is unclear how they caught it. I do wish the club would be more strict about not allowing players to congregate and eat/drink together after play. Otherwise, tennis is a great way to get exercise and stay sane during this health crisis.
 
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esgee48

G.O.A.T.
In SF, public courts became open in Oct 2020 and remain open. Not sure about private clubs, but I believe they are open too if they have outdoor courts.
 

leech

Semi-Pro
Local USTA leagues back in full swing in the DC metro area, but with lower participation and some facilities requiring players wear masks (county-by-county decision).
 

Injured Again

Hall of Fame
Seattle. Original shutdown in the Spring shutdown leagues and closed indoor facilities. Thankfully, the weather was reasonable and we could play outside, although some cities locked public/high school courts for several weeks, and we were able to play outdoors over the Summer. Indoor tennis also opened as we moved to phase 1.5/2 of reopening with no masks required during play, but had to be worn to/from the courts. That allowed our early start leagues (Adult 55+ and Mixed 18+) to be played Sep-Nov before indoor facilities were closed again in late November, just Mixed 18+ local playoffs were not completed. We've been closed for indoor tennis since then with just a few days warm/dry enough for reasonable outdoor tennis, but are supposed to open for indoor play again on Monday, but this time masks will be required during play. At no time of indoor tennis being allowed have we been limited to singles AFAIK.

I believe you are correct. When we opened back up to play in mid-May, we started off with a few weeks of singles only and only outdoors, due to restrictions in place at that time with King County being in phase 1. Even our limited number of outdoor court reservations were more plentiful then as our club's members who wanted to play doubles stuck to the public courts. At some point later, I think when we went to modified phase 1 or phase 2 in mid-June, we opened up the indoor courts and allowed singles and doubles on all courts.

I have both a court and gym reservation for Monday morning!
 
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Moveforwardalways

Hall of Fame
In Australia. We are mostly back to normal, with some minor restrictions. Had a couple of months shutdown. No cases in our region since about July so everything is pretty relaxed.

Tennis stopped at our club for about three months in the middle of last year. They are back now, only difference is slightly reduced numbers at the club and temperature checks/attendance logging.

Australia is in summertime now. Warm weather helped the USA and the UK when we were in summer. Winter has been tough though, with more to come.
 

cortado

Professional
UK. Not been able to play group drill sessions since October, only singles indoors or doubles outdoors, then only singles outdoors, now nothing. My village courts have had the padlocks changed again so I can't even go in by myself to practice serves.
This lockdown is supposed to last 3 months. Can't wait to go back in to another lockdown a few months after this one ends, once cases start to 'rise' again.
Let's just lockdown forever eh? So that nobody ever dies of anything ever again.
 

Cashman

Hall of Fame
Australia is in summertime now. Warm weather helped the USA and the UK when we were in summer. Winter has been tough though, with more to come.
We are also lucky that we are very isolated, with strong borders and quarantine practices that predated the pandemic, and have a small population with low population density.

Outbreaks have been fairly limited and relatively quickly controlled - even Victoria, which was by far our worst outbreak, was nowhere as bad as Europe and North America. I have colleagues who did not work from home at any stage last year.

For most of my life I have grizzled about how isolated Australia is - a trip to Europe or America involves 16-24 hours on a plane and thousands of dollars in airfares. But right now I feel very lucky to live where we do.
 
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Bagumbawalla

G.O.A.T.
Living in one of Californias hot spots for the virus-
partly because there are factions here that believe covid is
a hoax and disrupt businesses that require masks... and so on.
Meanwhile we are "locked down".
So, I just hit against the wall and practice when I can, read books
do crosswords and cryptograms and have
begun dabbling with Duolingo.

If we were going to be attacked by creatures from Mars- this would be
the perfect time.
 

Dags

Hall of Fame
We are also lucky that we are very isolated, with strong borders and quarantine practices that predated the pandemic, and have a small population with low population density.

Outbreaks have been fairly limited and relatively quickly controlled - even Victoria, which was by far our worst outbreak, was nowhere as bad as Europe and North America. I have colleagues who did not work from home at any stage last year.

For most of my life I have grizzled about how isolated Australia is - a trip to Europe or America involves 16-24 hours on a plane and thousands of dollars in airfares. But right now I feel very lucky to live where we do.
People tell me that I can't compare the UK (where I live) with somewhere like Australia, but the difference is even more stark than I could fathom. To provide some numbers (taken from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries):

Australia
28,595 cases
909 deaths

UK
59,937 cases
1,035 deaths

Oh yeah, I should probably mention - those are the total Australian figures since the start of the pandemic, and the UK ones for a single day (yesterday). Our totals are now 3,017,409 cases and 80,868 deaths, with the worse single day being Friday which was 68,053 cases and 1,325 deaths. To say we haven't handled this well would be an understatement.
 

cortado

Professional
People tell me that I can't compare the UK (where I live) with somewhere like Australia, but the difference is even more stark than I could fathom. To provide some numbers (taken from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries):

Australia
28,595 cases
909 deaths

UK
59,937 cases
1,035 deaths

Oh yeah, I should probably mention - those are the total Australian figures since the start of the pandemic, and the UK ones for a single day (yesterday). Our totals are now 3,017,409 cases and 80,868 deaths, with the worse single day being Friday which was 68,053 cases and 1,325 deaths. To say we haven't handled this well would be an understatement.
Consider that different countries are not counting 'cases' and 'deaths' in the same way.
Australia has one third the population of UK, spread out over a much larger area.
I really don't understand these people who relish how 'badly' we have done in UK. What would you do differently? Brick people up in their houses?
 

WildVolley

Legend
Local USTA leagues back in full swing in the DC metro area, but with lower participation and some facilities requiring players wear masks (county-by-county decision).

Interesting.

The public court scene in San Diego county has been crowded since late May when the courts officially reopened in most places. However, league is still shut down as clubs won't allow league matches.

I played almost four hours of doubles yesterday. Still difficult to find courts on the weekend, but the weekday court availability is mostly back to normal. Even our state has admitted that outdoor tennis is a low risk activity. Most of the recent cases here have been tracked down to home spread and employment spread. Encouraging people to get outdoors is good for public health.
 

HelenCH

Rookie
We were open until end of December - no doubles though, then they said to close tennis courts because according to our ministry of sports if sports installations are surrounded by a fence, they are not considered to be "open-air". Meanwhile department stores are open, all stores are open, not just essential ones. Plus free entry from many countries, no PCR required or quarantine. I understand the necessity of lockdowns but they need to make sense, and not be random to create an appearance that the government does something while not doing anything that actually matters and will make a difference. It was supposed to be till January 22 initially but was extended until end of February now because numbers have stopped falling and even started increasing after New Year. Maybe they will shut the stores next week, which they should do if they are serious.
 

S&V-not_dead_yet

Talk Tennis Guru
... according to our ministry of sports if sports installations are surrounded by a fence, they are not considered to be "open-air".

Obviously your Ministry of Sports was not making the rules for California when its governor had lunch at a Michelin-starred restaurant and his spokesperson defended it as "outdoor dining" even though there were 3 solid walls and a sliding glass door.

Maybe you need to borrow CA's rules and apply them to your tennis situation.
 

HelenCH

Rookie
Insane! Would love to see the "science" behind that!
Science has nothing to do with it. This is ministry of sport definition of open air installations. Frustrating. Especially when the government cannot grow a pair and act decisively to close places where transmission is occuring. We are already in this situation because they didn't do anything when we hit 1000 cases a day (at which point we closed in March for almost two months and had cases reduced almost 20-fold). Now, they let them go up to 10000 until hospitals started cracking and number of deaths has quadrupled since. More people died of Covid from November until now than from March until November. It will take much longer now to get things under control. If they acted on time, we could all have nice Christmas. Glaring incompetence as it they didn't know what would happen and that they would still have to close and for longer if they waited. Oh well, bring on the vaccine. I should get mine sometimes in March hopefully. But it's boring...
 

Dags

Hall of Fame
Consider that different countries are not counting 'cases' and 'deaths' in the same way.
Australia has one third the population of UK, spread out over a much larger area.
I really don't understand these people who relish how 'badly' we have done in UK. What would you do differently? Brick people up in their houses?
I certainly don’t relish that people are dying.

As to what could have been done differently, the biggest thing would be swiftness of action. At the beginning, we saw what was happening in Europe and were about three weeks ahead of the curve, but dithering meant we squandered that. It’s happened several times since, whether it was regarding the tier system or lockdowns 2 and 3. I hate lockdown, but by acting sooner we might have been able to keep more of a lid on it, and perhaps been restricted for a shorter period. The area I live in changed tier 3 or 4 times in December, and that wasn’t helpful to anyone - for example, we went to tier 2, the pubs reopened, 10 days later they’re closed again. The costs involved in that may well have been more than had they just remained shut.

The other major failings in my eyes are test and trace and quarantine. With the amount of money thrown at test and trace, that should have been far more functional over summer, when the numbers were lower and it could have been far more effective. The quarantine rules for travel have been a joke - there appears to be zero attempt to enforce them.

I’d have also liked to see more targeted financial support available to those who needed it, particularly to allow isolating. There are no figures for it, but I’ve heard too many anecdotal accounts of people going to work when they shouldn’t because, well, otherwise they wouldn’t have been paid. It's difficult to lay blame on the individuals in those situations.

Like everyone else, fatigue has long since set in. We seem to have reached the point that everything is riding on the vaccine. I just hope it’s effective enough that we don’t end up locking down again next winter.

As you’re of an alternative opinion, anything you’d have done differently? Or do you think this is as good as we could have hoped for?
 

cortado

Professional
I think we could have temporarily shut down international travel until we had a better idea of what we were dealing with. However, any suggestion of stopping international travel was called xenophobic at the time so it wasn't done.
I think we should consider which individuals or populations are most at risk, and target them specifically, rather than pretending that everybody is of similar risk.
We can't keep furloughing people and shutting businesses. We can't print money forever.
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Interesting.

The public court scene in San Diego county has been crowded since late May when the courts officially reopened in most places. However, league is still shut down as clubs won't allow league matches.

I played almost four hours of doubles yesterday. Still difficult to find courts on the weekend, but the weekday court availability is mostly back to normal. Even our state has admitted that outdoor tennis is a low risk activity. Most of the recent cases here have been tracked down to home spread and employment spread. Encouraging people to get outdoors is good for public health.

Courts at my club have become brutally difficult to get. Squeaked one out today and am playing in a couple of hours.

The big lake/park nearby is proving impossible for parking on weekends as people are showing up for an escape.
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
I think we could have temporarily shut down international travel until we had a better idea of what we were dealing with. However, any suggestion of stopping international travel was called xenophobic at the time so it wasn't done.
I think we should consider which individuals or populations are most at risk, and target them specifically, rather than pretending that everybody is of similar risk.
We can't keep furloughing people and shutting businesses. We can't print money forever.

The surges have come after holiday domestic travel and superspreader domestic events, not international travel. Shutting down international travel triggers reciprocal action on the other side. International travel requires tests before traveling, sometimes again on arrival, and again after a few days, and temperature checks throughout. No such safeguards for domestic gatherings, parties, and crowds.
 

cortado

Professional
The surges have come after holiday domestic travel and superspreader domestic events, not international travel. Shutting down international travel triggers reciprocal action on the other side. International travel requires tests before traveling, sometimes again on arrival, and again after a few days, and temperature checks throughout. No such safeguards for domestic gatherings, parties, and crowds.
Yes, but the virus needs to get in to your country first before being able to spread domestically at parties.
 

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Yes, but the virus needs to get in to your country first before being able to spread domestically at parties.

That happened at the initial stage when everyone was caught off-guard. And it need not have been so if the CDC position in China had not been eliminated out of spite based on who created it initially after SARS. Around December, the world would have known what had occurred in China. Even when it was known in January to US intelligence, the information was suppressed and no action was taken. The single action of retaining the embedded CDC position in China might have prevented the scale of this pandemic, throughout the world. The woman in that position actually resigned months before the position was officially due to expire, out of disgust. This is what happens when politicians interfere in such matters out of spite

Once that happened, international travel was greatly secured, and the spread occurred due to domestic flouting of rules (and refusal to have rules, until the hospitals started overflowing, by which time people had already got the wink-wink attitude of their "leaders."). And the new strain seems to even appear in places which are untraceable to travel. The mutation seems to emerge naturally.
 
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Wesley J

Rookie
Southside Virginia. Courts and clubs closed up (some outdoor courts even taking the nets down to go with locks on the gate). Most places reopened by June and everything has been pretty normal since then. Masks haven't been required indoors but most people wear them in the lobby and take it off when they play. Southside wasn't hit as hard by covid though so it is most likely different in Northern VA where the infection rate was higher. USTA leagues and WTT were still played down here.
 

WildVolley

Legend
Courts at my club have become brutally difficult to get. Squeaked one out today and am playing in a couple of hours.

The big lake/park nearby is proving impossible for parking on weekends as people are showing up for an escape.

I've been able to get courts on the public parks in North County, but there is definitely a wait on the weekend.

Going out for a casual hit in about a half hour. Hopefully courts will be available by then as the weather is about perfect. High 60s F, sunny, and little wind.
 

bobleenov1963

Hall of Fame
I live near Washington DC and the Trump mob that caused riot and mayhem at the US capitol will be a Covid super spreaders event, and more people will get sick and die because of this. The US is turning into a banana republi, not democratic republic.
 
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S&V-not_dead_yet

Talk Tennis Guru
All of the coaches/instructors I know are busier than ever; more business than they can handle.

Courts are busier than usual although not as busy as summer when, if we didn't get to the courts by 7am, they were all taken. And there was a line.
 

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
Arizona, like many of the popular warm winter states, has had a large spike in COVID cases, but no additional sanctions on things overall. We just to get tested again as some close friends in church that my wife works with on the weekends there tested positive and are pretty sick. So all negative still. We distance a lot, though we still get out to eat, do hikes, and I am playing tennis. Actually our first league match is tomorrow night, so those are going here as well. I have been doing the Flex league since before Christmas, but not getting a lot of responses when trying to schedule with players, but that happens in Flex anyway. Only been able to schedule and play 2 of the 5 I should have complete so far.

STRC facilities are not crowded overall, but the beginner classes in the evenings are packed.
 

Papa Mango

Professional
Here in NorCal East bay, courts opened up in May and have been packed ever since.
It is hard to find courts at prime time (weekday evenings and weekends) unless you book a court a week in advance.
The cities around me were fast to implement online court reservation system (before you had to call and book, yes right next to silicon valley!) but the rates have doubled too. Assuming half the fee is going to the companies providing the software.
I have been playing 5+ days a week usually mornings, since everyone is around and the schedules are open since no kids school or sports.

I believe the private club are open but members only.
We had a couple of tournaments in late summer/fall but no leagues and I am assuming 2021 is a wash for adult leagues.
 

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
We should just play. it's been proven that it is extremely difficult to transmit the virus even playing Doubles. Unless you go over and kiss your opponents. and i've never done that and don't plan to.
 

Dartagnan64

G.O.A.T.
We should just play. it's been proven that it is extremely difficult to transmit the virus even playing Doubles. Unless you go over and kiss your opponents. and i've never done that and don't plan to.

I'm not sure it's been "proven" but certainly I've not heard of outbreaks related to tennis in any form.

I agree totally that restricting doubles tennis is pretty silly even theoretically. In our city indoor dining is open, so at our club, you can go to the pub, sit amongst dozens of other non-household members, not wear a mask and stay there for hours in a small poorly ventilated space. But you can't play doubles with 16 people in an acre of space that is well ventilated.
 
In Texas, and we start USTA league next week. Tourneys happening too. Outside of very early last year, I haven’t heard of Covid transmission locally being tied to tennis. In fact, I think Covid has revitalized the game locally....lots more players at my club than previous years. I think people need a physical activity as an outlet.
 

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
In Texas, and we start USTA league next week. Tourneys happening too. Outside of very early last year, I haven’t heard of Covid transmission locally being tied to tennis. In fact, I think Covid has revitalized the game locally....lots more players at my club than previous years. I think people need a physical activity as an outlet.
this is illegal. we should call the national guard and put a stop to this before another Super outbreak event comes out of texas. We must not play tennis til september of this year. this is the safe practice recommended by WHO
 
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