We know on Monday this week there was a conference call with Andrea Gaudenzi, the new head of the ATP. As Tournament Director of the Madrid Open, can you give us an update of what you can share with us, about scheduling. Which tournaments are still in the calendar and what is his opinion about the summer and ultimately the US Open?
Well, right now it’s more about US Open - when they are going to announce if eventually we can play there, maybe the Tour will be able to resume. But, I’m not very positive to be honest. I think tennis is a very global sport where players come from all over the world. There are tournaments everywhere in the world as well and I think the fact that some countries have different restrictions than others is going to make things very, very difficult.

In order to resume, I think the Tour is going to be open when the world is completely open, and everybody can travel freely around the world. So, we make it fair. Because if, for example, in September, me being Spanish I am not able to go to America or let’s say I have to be in quarantine as soon as I get there. It’s not fair that some players would have the chance to compete, some other players wouldn’t have that chance. So, I think it’s about the world to be open. This is the key. I don’t see the Tour resuming if this doesn’t happen in 2-3 months’ time.

Roger Federer tweeted that he thinks the ATP Tour, the WTA Tour should maybe join forces, this would be a good time to start something new. Do think there will be any cooperation with the Grand Slams and WTA Tour?
Well, I think there is a lot going on at the moment. I think it is true that this is the moment to unite forces, I agree. And to have everyone together. I think this is the main goal of Andrea Gaudenzi. When he took over as the President, he said that his goal was to have everyone together. ITF, Grand Slams, players, tournaments, WTA, ATP. I think this is our main goal right now in tennis.

And so far, we are waiting for the US Open to make an announcement. And Madrid, talking about Madrid. We have a small chance to play in September, IF we are allowed, first of all. If Spain gets better, we might have a chance to do it. Because as you know, the French Open is supposed to be played in September. They want to have a few played tournaments before that. And it’s Madrid and Rome, the Masters 1000 that are supposed to be played before the French. But right now, we are waiting.

The situation is really different because right now we cannot make any plans. It’s day by day. And we have to be really patient. There is nothing we can do; we have to wait. I am not very positive to be honest, I told Boris that we need the world to be open until this is happening, I don’t see the Tour resuming.

Talk to us about a possible fund to support players ranked lower than 150 in the world?
About the fund, I think ATP they were planning to do something about it and since everything is cancelled, they’ve been trying to support those players ranked beyond 150. Yes, so there are many ways to contribute to that fund. The first one was the ATP itself. I think they already put money there. From tournaments etc. Then there is another way that the Top 100 players, we are going to donate depending on the ranking. So it’s going to be near to a million, I think.

The minimum is 5,000 up to 30,000 or 40,000. For the number 1, 2 and 3 in the world, I guess. And then from 5 to 10, from 10 to 20, 20 to 50 – I think and 50 to 100, more or less, I think. And then we are also trying with the virtual thing to contribute as well. It’s 300,000 more that we are hopefully adding, if players are going to be generous, they have that in the fund as well. There’s a lot of people  now trying to support the fund and make it better for the players that are struggling right now.

Are you worried a little bit that tennis could have a big break between players that can afford to  play tennis and players that have to find a new job?
Of course, of course! I mean, the situation is really bad. All over the world, we will see a lot of tournaments struggling to survive and I think our focus in general has to be to survive from 2021 onwards. Because the crisis is going to be huge. The small tournaments somehow have to survive. Maybe the Slams, the bigger tournaments somehow have to contribute by supporting. I don’t know, there is many ways to help, but I think instead of thinking about playing four, five or six tournaments at the end of this year, we have to start thinking about next year and how we are going to be able to survive this crisis because everybody is going to be struggling economically: the tournaments, the sponsors.

The first thing that’s cut in a company are the sponsors because they have to fire thousands of employees in many companies around the world. So, if we don’t have sponsors, how can we survive? I think our focus and efforts have to be, I would say, on 2021, instead of trying of trying to play a little bit this year because the year will be gone once the US Open will probably get cancelled. That’s my opinion. I don’t know.

How long is it going to take for a player to get back to let’s say where you guys where last year in July/August or in the middle of the season?
I think it’s going to be tough. I haven’t played since Indian Wells. It’s so far. My longest period without hitting a tennis ball – in my life! I mean, it’s nearly 2 months and I’ve never been without playing for 2 months since I started playing professional tennis. Now, I do, I exercise every day a little, but honestly, I do it more because I feel better and it’s something I do for my mental health, you know - because I feel better afterwards.

Honestly, I don’t know when I am going to be playing tennis again. It might be September-October, it might be January next year. In a way I’m confident that whenever the Tour is going to be resuming, I will have enough time to prepare myself physically. Right now, it’s more about exercise yourself, stay healthy – also mentally – and start off the day with another mood. Because every day is the same now. It doesn’t matter if it’s Sunday or Wednesday, every day is the same. So, you need to exercise a bit, you need to do things in order to be mentally okay and not to go crazy.

It's tough for the young players that are trying to break through to get a break of 6 months or whatever it is, just to stop and you can’t go any further?
It’s so weird. This is something very new and there’s many questions and very few answers for the questions. We don’t know what’s going to happen and as you said, there’s a lot of uncertainty right now. We don’t know the governments, they seem to be lost. They don’t know what to say to their people. It’s really tough to predict, I don’t know. I mean I wonder how many players have been able to hit tennis balls in the last two months.

There are countries where I know, that there are players that have been able to play a little bit, on private courts. There’s probably players that have their own private court at home. In Spain, it’s literally impossible to hit. All the clubs are closed and unless you have a private court at home you don’t have a chance to play. So I think, more or less we are going to be in the same situation and this is going to be affecting everyone.

I see a big risk because when tennis is going to resume, there’s going to be a lot of injuries. I think this is something that we have to keep in mind to have at least two months to prepare and to work on your fitness condition to be ready. Because this is probably going to be 6-7-8 months without tennis for anybody. When you start playing again you need to be aware of the injuries and you need to take care of yourself.

What’s your take on the current situation?
It’s been very sad you know. All the cancellations, you know. We had to also cancel Madrid, where I am the Tournament Director and following Madrid the grass season was cancelled, everything was cancelled. I don’t know what is going to happen with the US Open, but you know, properly they will make an announcement soon. But yes, for me the grass season is something very special. Last year, it’s been amazing what happened to me at Queens. Winning Singles and Doubles with Andy [Murray], that’s very special. I really miss it and hopefully I’ll be able to play again in 2021, who knows?

Feliciano Lopez was speaking exclusively to Eurosport's Tennis Legends podcast alongside Elina Svitolina. Download the full podcast from Thursday evening (30 April).