Hi, this is Mary and Bartoli. I'm Matt's Belander. This is Mary Carillo. I'm San Roenca. I'm like New York. I'm Andy Murray. This is Yanik Noah.

Hi, this is Dristian Cruz-Limpsico from Amsterdam and you're listening to the tennis podcast.

Well, thank you and hello, Dristian in Amsterdam. That's a very cool name and a very cool place to live.

I've not actually been to Amsterdam but once travel is possible again, I would love to go. But not for a while, I'm sure.

Thank you Dristian and thank you for backing us in last year's Kickstarter. Thank you to everybody that is back to us in this year's Kickstarter.

We have reached our target. We are still crowdfunding. It's open for another 45 days. I think up to the start of the Australian Open.

Look, we've hit our target. We will be bringing your podcasts next year and they will be bigger and better.

David Law has anything to do with it. More numerous than even this year. But if you want to chip in, do you bit and be part of it or get yourself an intro or be part of our predictions competition or shout out or a private podcast or become a guest editor.

Any of those things are possible. If you just want to buy us a beer or some cheese or a new front tooth, any of those things, then you're very welcome to do so.

All of it will be appreciated and all of it will be put to good use. We'd love to be able to guarantee you that we'll do a certain amount of travel next year and travel to events specifically for the podcast.

We really hope that that's what we'll be putting a lot of funds to use for next year. But obviously we're not in a position to be able to absolutely guarantee that at this stage because of the pesky old pandemic.

Yeah.

And speaking of the old coronavirus, it would seem and this isn't absolutely confirmed, but it would seem this is via reports from John Werthheim,

who is a very reliable source and is reporting it quite confidently that Indian Wells is on the brink of being cancelled for 2021.

Yeah. It's another jarring moment, isn't it? Because that's where all of this started. At least became moved into our consciousness in a really visceral, immediate way.

When it was cancelled the night before you were about to fly there and I think the assumption was really that as the year went on, particularly, I suppose particularly now that there is a vaccine on the horizon or beat however long, far down the road in terms of everybody being able to benefit from it.

The assumption was that 2021 things will start to hopefully get back to normal and that Indian Wells will be able to happen at least, you know, because that didn't happen last year. And to think that two years in a row, it may well not run is quite hard to take. It's looking grand scheme of things I know it's not as big a deal in people's lives as many, many others.

But in the tennis world, that is another moment really, another point in time that just shows how devastating this virus has been to the world and to the sporting world.

Obviously, it'll open up a gap in the calendar, which may be enticing to some tournaments. I wonder if it'll be enticing to tennis Australia, who we've heard reports that they will sort of plan an Australian swing post the Australian open to try and make it more worthwhile.

So, I think that the Australian play is coming over and quarantining the current situation in terms of reports on that on when the Australian open and surrounding events will happen.

And there's a number of very reputable sources reporting this as well, John Worth, I'm the Spanish newspaper marker reporting this that the most likely scenario is the Australian taking plate is Australian open taking place three weeks later than planned.

So, starting on February 8th with the quarantine period beginning from January 15th and then a weeks practice week, possibly with an additional warm up tournament that week taking place immediately, prior to the Australian open and crucially qualifying is reported to be taking place not in Australia, most likely in the Middle East, possibly Dubai.

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