FTF chief executive Gijs Kooken is in regular contact with the Belgian government and said he had “not yet had a signal that it’s not safe to organize the event”.
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Great Britain’s Davis Cup team are set to take on hosts Belgium in this week’s final amid an unprecedented level of security as the country hunts terrorists it believes are planning an imminent attack.
But the Flemish Tennis Federation (FTF), who are actually staging the final were this morning insisting it would go ahead, starting Friday.
“Of course you never can predict what will happen next, but I would be surprised if it was cancelled”.
Leon Smith, the British captain, and his team flew to Belgium by private jet on Monday morning, 24 hours later than had been originally planned, and were training on the indoor clay court at the 13,000-capacity Flanders Expo arena by mid-afternoon.
Extra security measures have been put in place for the three-day final. While there are no changes to start times for the match at the city’s Flanders Expo Centre, where the Britain team were scheduled to practice tonight, no-one will be permitted access to the venue with a bag or holdall, while no food or drink will be permitted into the venue.
The Davis Cup final between Belgium and Great Britain is due to take place next weekend in Ghent, a few 35 miles from Molenbeek, where police had been hunting one of the last suspects from the Paris terror attacks.
“So we are going to be watching at home”. “It’s a case of wait and see, but we hope it goes ahead”. Charles Michel, Belgium’s Prime Minister, said on Sunday that the level of alert in the Brussels area would stay at level four.
The ITF and the RBTF, after consulting Belgian security forces and their own risk assessment advisers, said they were “closely monitoring the situation in Belgium and specifically in Ghent”. This greatly concerns us but, at the present time, we are still continuing with preparations for the final.
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Global Tennis Federation president David Haggerty reiterated the security of players, fans and staff was its highest priority, and that dialogue with the relevant authorities is ongoing.
