COVID-19: Wimbledon shares video cheering healthcare workers

The tournament stands cancelled this year due to the coronavirus situation

federer-reuters [File] Eight-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer has narrated for the video | Reuters

The novel coronavirus has left the sporting calendar in disarray. The All England Lawn Tennis Association had earlier this month cancelled the 2020 Wimbledon Championships, one of the four grand slam tournaments, for the first time since World War II. However, Wimbledon organisers have come out with an endearing video, cheering the services of healthcare workers who have been working tirelessly during the COVID-19 crisis.

Wimbledon took to its official Twitter account to post the video, tweeting, “Play is suspended, but we cheer for a different kind of champion.”

Narrated by 20-time grand slam champion Roger Federer, the video goes through the history of the tournament since it began in 1877, and how fans have come together every year to embrace the championship, watching it in multiple screens, at all hours of the day and night, and waiting in queues.

“This summer, sadly, we must come together by staying apart,” Federer says.

Federer, an eight-time Wimbledon champion, goes on to say that countless champions will be found among healthcare workers and cheered on as they “compete for us”.

“For now, with play suspended, we are united in hope that tomorrow will be better than today.”

Watch the video:

When Wimbledon announced the cancellation of the tournament earlier in April, Federer had retweeted the news with just one comment, “devastated”, while sharing a gif that read “There is no gif for these things that I am feeling”. Wimbledon was due to start from June 29 till July 12.

“The 134th Championships will instead bestaged from June 28 to July 11, 2021,” Wimbledon had tweeted.

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