Yuki Bhambri

[arjun2761]

I wonder if he should come back as a doubles specialist as the stress on the body is a lot less in doubles. Also, his return of serve and net game is pretty good, so he should have a shot at being a top 50 doubles player. His biggest weakness is his serve which is an even bigger weakness in singles since a partner who is good at the net can help you hold serve in doubles.

[jayakris]

Let us just wish him the best. Lord knows that the dude deserves a break. All the best Yuki!!!

[RohitG]

Key takeaway: He's 70-80% already there but needs to recondition himself because of a 1.5 year gap. He also can't do heavy training like usual yet. So he has postponed his comeback till the clay season.

[PKBasu]

With the clay season cancelled, Yuki should be in fine fettle to return to the circuit at the start of the grass season. I've seen a few videos (starting from the second week of February) showing Yuki actually practicing his tennis strokes, serve, etc.

[jayakris]

Grass season? What grass season?

I am highly doubtful if countries will be out of the Covid-19 issue by June. Most of the world will get back to work fairly soon in 2-3 weeks time, but a lot of people will be constantly getting infected, a lot of players will be down, and a lot of offices and workers who are able to work from home will continue to do that, and all that into May and June. I don't think we will be in an equilibrium when everybody has got used to living with Covid-19 like the regular flu (which will require a lot of changes in social distancing etc, but only so much is possible). The bottom line is that most countries need to get to the point of being able to put the required number of patients on ventilators. Till then a lot of deaths will happen, and that will be too often for comfort. Maybe by July-August we will get there, but June is doubtful. Things could change if some sort of treatment schemes are figured out soon enough to reduce the hospital time for patients. Then people can pretty much accept that they have some 30% chance to get it during the next few months (like the chance we all have, to catch a flu) and that they don't need to worry too much about finding a hospital bed in the further 1/6th chance for them to end up having to be in a hospital for a few days. So on and so forth.

We will get past this, but probably not in 2 months. May be 3 to 4 months. If UK is still in deep trouble with Covid-19 and Wimbledon is cancelled, then we won't really have a grass season.

[sameerph]

Or maybe grass season in late July-mid August of we are able to get thru this by that time. It will get into hard court season but then everything is going to haywire as far as schedulling is concerned.

Either way I do not see any tennis happening till end June at least or may be more.

[PKBasu]

I think the world is over-reacting, believe it or not. Social distancing is needed to contain its exponential spread (Italy, Case 31 in South Korea, Iran were the triggers for legitimate fear). Once the latest global lockdown ends by mid-April, I think most countries would have contained the exponential growth. The contagion is real, and needs to be countered. But once we’re down to 0-50 new cases in all countries, mitigation becomes easier. I think life will begin to normalise by end-May, albeit with some social distancing protocols (and regular measurement of body temperature before entering public places) in place.

[arjun2761]

Taking temperatures isn't going to help much since most carriers are asymptomatic and even those who show symptoms do so after several days.

Once we have a vaccine to protect the vulnerable, I believe this will just become another cause of death for small fraction in addition to the currently accepted causes of death like cancer, heart disease, flu and diabetes complications. The key to normalcy will be getting the vaccine and perhaps a reasonable therapeutic in place to make this just like a tough flu.

[RohitG]

If they do achieve the scenario of containment and flattening the curve, do yall think international travel will be permitted?

[jayakris]

I think the world is over-reacting, believe it or not. Social distancing is needed to contain its exponential spread (Italy, Case 31 in South Korea, Iran were the triggers for legitimate fear). Once the latest global lockdown ends by mid-April, I think most countries would have contained the exponential growth. The contagion is real, and needs to be countered. But once we’re down to 0-50 new cases in all countries, mitigation becomes easier. I think life will begin to normalise by end-May, albeit with some social distancing protocols (and regular measurement of body temperature before entering public places) in place.

Generally true. The world will start moving in another 2 to 3 weeks, Corona or not. Because people in most countries will generally have a handle on hospitals, doctor protocols, testing, PPEs, beds available, etc. And the world cannot keep airline companies down for too long, so they will restart with all kinds of temeprature checks and quarantining in place. Actually China is sending all aircrafts to Beijing to a different airport and after checking sending the flights to Beijing, for instance. This period is basically to get ready to live with the Coronavirus. So yeah, by end of May we will be doing it. A lot of cases will still be coming in all over, but we will be used to it by even the middle of April, and will have systems in place to live with it by mid-May.

[jayakris]

If they do achieve the scenario of containment and flattening the curve, do yall think international travel will be permitted?

I think by end of April international flights will all be back. From April 7th through 30th we will see them all back one by one, though demand will pick up only very slowly. Th airlines companies will all die otherwise! Different countries will have all kinds of banned lists and acceptable lists of places for incoming flights, so it will be a nightmare for airlines companies to plan, but they will do it. But international travel will be a hassle, with all kinds of quarantining requirements and all that in various places. "You can come to India, but you go straight to house quarantine, and if you are positive, you will be in a hospital isolation ward. If you are from the US, UK, Italy, etc, a swab sample will be taken at the airport itself..." So on. Special enclosures for transit passengers in the terminals and all kinds of hassles are coming.

[Sin Hombre]

Generally true. The world will start moving in another 2 to 3 weeks, Corona or not. Because people in most countries will generally have a handle on hospitals, doctor protocols, testing, PPEs, beds available, etc. And the world cannot keep airline companies down for too long, so they will restart with all kinds of temeprature checks and quarantining in place. Actually China is sending all aircrafts to Beijing to a different airport and after checking sending the flights to Beijing, for instance. This period is basically to get ready to live with the Coronavirus. So yeah, by end of May we will be doing it. A lot of cases will still be coming in all over, but we will be used to it by even the middle of April, and will have systems in place to live with it by mid-May.

I think this will be closer to end-June than end May.

PKB lives in Singapore which has the best functioning government with a population that follows rules. Most of the Western world doesn't.

[sameerph]

Generally true. The world will start moving in another 2 to 3 weeks, Corona or not. Because people in most countries will generally have a handle on hospitals, doctor protocols, testing, PPEs, beds available, etc. And the world cannot keep airline companies down for too long, so they will restart with all kinds of temeprature checks and quarantining in place. Actually China is sending all aircrafts to Beijing to a different airport and after checking sending the flights to Beijing, for instance. This period is basically to get ready to live with the Coronavirus. So yeah, by end of May we will be doing it. A lot of cases will still be coming in all over, but we will be used to it by even the middle of April, and will have systems in place to live with it by mid-May.

If so many cases and so many deaths keep happening till that time in Europe and USA, will they lift their lock down totally. At this point really unable to fathom how all this will play out till the time vaccine/medicine comes thru which I read is at least a year away.

[prasen9]

While we cannot predict the future, this will be with us for a long time. In fact, it may be a wise idea to let off the lockdown for a while and let the virus spread a bit and then lock down again. Here is the best article that I saw about projecting what will happen. See the graph in the article. Modeling

[arjun2761]

I think this will be closer to end-June than end May.

PKB lives in Singapore which has the best functioning government with a population that follows rules. Most of the Western world doesn't.

Yes, Trump is pushing to open the US for partial business sooner than June although many of the more affected states will likely keep the near lock down into June.

Does not look like vaccines or therapeutics will be proven to be reliable until next year.

Not sure what the rest of the year will look like. Clearly, social distancing and extra hygiene (hand washing etc.) will become the norm. That may allow many businesses to reopen that can work under these rules. The higher risk folks (older people, smokers etc.) will need to follow stricter isolation.

The US has around 8000 deaths per day. Covid-19 is claiming around 50-100 per day in the US. However, many of these 50-100 are older folks with chronic conditions, who likely would have died anyway within a short time, so the unexpected death rate is pretty low. So, perhaps in time, Covid-19 deaths will be not that different from deaths from diabetes, heart disease, flu complications etc. Just like those with diabetes strictly control their sugar (and carb) intake, those at risk from Covid-19 will need to isolate themselves with nursing homes etc. having much stricter standards for visitors etc. I guess the difference is that diabetes has some medicines which reduce impact, the flu has a vaccine and anti-virals that protect many, whereas we don't have anything for Covid-19. Otherwise the Covid-19 may be no deadlier than the milder flu strains -- it is certainly less lethal than SARS, Swine flu, Spanish flu etc.