General

There will be some tennis Exhibition events starting with an 8 player round robin event at the German Tennis Academy from Friday.

There are no lines judges and no ball kids. There are also, obviously, no fans. Just the two players and the umpire. However the matches are being streamed online.

The highest ranked player in the 4 day tournament is 148th ranked German player Yannick Hanfmann. Dustin Brown is also competing. They are playing a changed format of best of 3 sets with the sets being the first to 4 games. There will be no advantage played from Deuce.

The series should prove to be an interesting one as it is a small step towards a proper return to main tour tennis.

The Telegraph reported that,

The players at the Tennis Point Exhibition Series will have to wear masks when not in action and there will only be two competitors and a chair umpire allowed on court during a match.

The tournament will feature an eight-man draw contesting a total of 32 matches over four days on indoor clay at the Base Tennis Academy near the small town of Höhr-Grenzhausen, situated about 10 km northeast of Koblenz. The Tennis Channel will broadcast the matches while scores will be streamed for betting through data company Sportradar.

There will be prize money involved.

It is also reported that the German and Austrian Tennis Federations are set to organise a 6 week exhibition series with 32 players including Thiem, Kohlschreiber and Struff. There will also be 24 WTA players involved. The Austrian even is due to start on May 5th and the German one starts on June 8th.