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Dustin Brown

Coronavirus: Hanfmann defeats Jamaican Dustin Brown to lift Tennis-Point's toilet roll trophy

The eight-player tournament at the Base Tennis Academy in Hohr-Grenzhausen concluded on Monday, with the top-ranked Hanfmann prevailing in the first fairly surreal experience of tennis during the coronavirus pandemic.

World number 143 Hanfmann and Brown entered the court wearing face masks, while there were no spectators, ball boys and girls or line officials present.

Under the best-of-seven-game sets format, Hanfmann prevailed 4-2 4-0 in dominant fashion.

His reward was a makeshift trophy fashioned out of a tennis ball and a roll of toilet tissue, which was handed to him by a gentleman wearing a mask and surgical gloves.

The second Tennis Point event gets under way on Thursday and, although the pool of players is somewhat limited by travel restrictions, organisers tweeted to say "there might be a surprise or two at the next tournament".

Coronavirus: Jamaican Dustin Brown serves up early win as tennis returns behind closed doors

Dustin Brown brought the Wimbledon Centre Court crowd to their feet with a stunning win over Rafael Nadal five years ago, his flamboyant game winning a legion of fans.

However, the dreadlocked German-Jamaican had no spectators to impress at the Tennis-Point tournament, played at Germany's Base Tennis Academy in Hohr-Grenzhausen, a small town found between Cologne and Frankfurt.

In the round-robin phase of the eight-man tournament, Brown secured a 4-2 4-2 win against fellow German player Constantin Schmitz.

The ATP and WTA tours have seen all tournaments through to mid-July postponed or cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But the Tennis-Point series of three exhibitions, with its best-of-seven-game sets, is expected to be the first of a host of non-tour events to be staged.

The first match on day one of the event saw Benjamin Hassan beat Jean-Marc Werner 4-2 4-2.

With international travel severely restricted, the Tennis-Point events are featuring players based only in Germany, but there are similar plans for tournaments elsewhere, notably in France, where Serena Williams' coach Patrick Mouratoglou has proposed staging matches, and Spain.

Two events will be held on private courts in Florida later this month, it was announced on Friday, with top-20 stars Matteo Berrettini and Alison Riske among those playing.

Friday's matches were played in a cavernous indoor venue, with an umpire but no ball boys or ball girls or line officials.

The red clay court was surrounded by advertising boards, reflecting the fact the match was being shown by a specialist tennis broadcaster.

It was tennis, yet not tennis as we know it given the sterile environment.

The esteemed Dutch coach Sven Groeneveld, who has worked with players including Maria Sharapova, Monica Seles and most recently Sloane Stephens, said the match "referee" picked up the balls without wearing gloves at the end of one match.

He also observed a change of protocol, writing on Twitter: "Nice to see the interview after match but no handshake or recognition of thanks towards opponent nor the referee! Maybe bowing like in japan would be a nice gesture of thanks!"

Tsitsipas, Gasquet claim UTS victories

The event in France, created by Serena Williams' coach Patrick Mouratoglou, is aimed at attracting new fans to the sport and is one of the first tennis tournaments to take place since the coronavirus pandemic struck Europe.

The event is played in a league format, with each match consisting of four quarters and a sudden-death fifth if the scores are level.

On Sunday, world number six Tsitsipas defeated Paire 3-1, hitting more than 30 winners en route to victory.

Gasquet beat David Goffin 3-2 after sudden death, with Feliciano Lopez overcoming Lucas Pouille by the same scoreline.

The UTS' first match was won by Alexei Popyrin against Frenchman Elliot Benchetrit, while Matteo Berrettini also claimed a 3-1 victory over Dustin Brown.