Is this the new normal for tennis? A series of exhibitions get underway this weekend... with Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem and later Andy Murray competing across Europe with shorter matches, no handshakes, virtual fan interaction and NICKNAMES adopted

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In the pre-Covid world, this week would have marked the start of the grass-court tennis season. The freshly mown lawns at Nottingham, Queen's and Birmingham in many ways signal the start of the British summer and a much-cherished annual tradition.

This year though, amid the consistent push-back of the ATP and WTA Tours since their curtailment on March 9, the sport has been turned on its head. Wimbledon cancelled. The French Open delayed. The US Open, due to start in less than three months time, up in the air.

But for the players, starved of competitive action for 103 days, Saturday marks the start of a myriad of unorthodox, innovative and completely random exhibition events, in Europe at first and later spreading to the US.  

Tennis is facing a two-month period of exhibitions, with social distancing measures in place

Though the Tennis Point Exhibition series in Germany sprung up in May with strict anti-coronavirus protocols in place, tomorrow is the start of an onslaught of action to replace the SW19 bubble.

Nearly all the world's best players have committed to competing, from Novak Djokovic in the Balkans to Andy Murray in Britain, in competitions that vary dramatically in their formats and ideas. 

The Ultimate Tennis Showdown – the brain-child of self-defined tennis reformer Patrick Mouratoglou – being held at his state-of-the-art academy on the French Riviera, is the most radical. 

Speaking to Sportsmail earlier this week, Serena Williams' coach emphasised the need for tennis to reform in order to entice a younger, untouched fanbase – a drum he has been beating for many years now.  

Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams' coach, has created the Ultimate Tennis Showdown

'I love tennis but I think it is in trouble and I've know that for a long time,' said Mouratoglou. 'The fans we have are usually those that fell in love with the game in the 70s or 80s, and we are living too much on that fan base.

'I don't think the personalities were better then than they are now, but people were expressing themselves more... too often we wait and then think we have to suddenly change everything, so I am trying to avoid that and make changes in good time.'

As such, the eight-man field for his event have supposedly been handpicked based on their personality, and nicknamed in a mantra PDC Darts chairman Barry Hearn world be proud of. 

How does Richard Gasquet's 'The Virtuoso' sound? Dustin 'The Artist' Brown might face a copyright claim with pro darts player Kevin Painter. Presumably their imagination had vanished by the time they reached the top-seed: Dominic 'Domi' Thiem.

Dominic Thiem and Stefanos Tsitsipas have been given nicknames ahead of the exhibition

Say what you like – bold marketing and wacky innovation is something rarely seen in the traditional world of professional tennis, while other sports worldwide adopt fresh methods to attract more eyeballs. 

Other snazzy features include players being mic'd up, so fans will be able to interact virtually at changeovers with those competing, who themselves are being encouraged to express their passion with a relaxed code of conduct. Scream and shout as much as you like – did Nick Kyrgios' invitation get lost in the post amid the global lockdown? 

Coaching, a longlasting divisive issue within the fabric of the sport, will be allowed, and UTS will as per the website, 'not present just a tennis match, it will present showdowns,' streamed live via a subscription service. 

Elsewhere, a more conventional Adria Tour has been created by world No 1 Novak Djokovic, with the first instalment due to take place at his own tennis centre in Belgrade this weekend. 

Novak Djokovic at the launch of Adria Tour, taking place across four weekends in the Balkans

The 'Novak Tennis Centre' in Belgrade will host the first instalment this weekend on clay

Thiem, who Djokovic beat in tennis' last Grand Slam final in Australia, is also appearing in the competition too, with best-of-three sets but first-to-four games scoring set to add an intriguing dimension to the event, which will be broadcasted on Eurosport. 

A limited number of spectators will also be allowed on-site in what could well be a sign of things to come in 2020 – with 1,000 tickets selling in seven minutes for the tour's first leg this weekend. 

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has already won an all-Czech behind closed doors event at the end of May, and she will appear again in the Elite Trophy, with five players from the WTA top-50 competing at several clubs in the Czech Republic over four weekends. 

Further down the line, Kyrgios is making an appearance in Germany next month, on the grass in Hamburg, while Jamie Murray has created 'Schroders Battle of the Brits', which will feature brother Andy and other top British players, live on Amazon Prime from June 23-28.

To its credit, the event at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton will raise a minimum of £100,000 for NHS Charities Together, with other exhibitions also acting as fundraisers for health and wellbeing charities.  

Jamie Murray has created an all-British behind-closed-doors event called 'Battle of the Brits'

With exhibitions in the United States and Spain also set to take place before the tour's probable return sometime in August, what could the next two months teach us about a sport which has, through a variety of means, attempted to modernise itself in the past few years?

Roger Federer, who this week announced he would miss the 2020 season for further surgery, opted out of last year's inaugural Davis Cup Finals event (another newbie) to play a series of exhibitions against Alexander Zverev in south and central America. 

The 20-time major winner took his own roadshow to Cape Town in February, where he and long-term rival Rafael Nadal – who incidentally is reluctant about competing in the current climate – set a world-record for the highest attendance for a tennis match ever.  

Roger Federer played an exhibition against Rafael Nadal in the Cape Town Stadium in February

Federer's very own Ryder Cup-style Laver Cup competition, pitting Europe against the Rest of the World, has been extremely successful in its entertainment value over three editions. 

So tennis' flirtation with the ultra-modern is far from kickstarting this weekend. An eye on the future has been an integral goal in recent times. But in a period when the ATP & WTA tours dilly-dally on when the season will return, what could it tell us? 

For the players, there will be ring-rust, no doubt. The three-month hiatus is at least double the length of a standard off-season. Social distancing measures, with no handshakes, ball-kids or line-judges, will undoubtedly be strange.

Social distancing measures, and the wearing of face masks for players, will also be adopted 

But could these exhibitions – with player satisfaction, dramatic moments and something brazenly different – accelerate certain proposals being adopted on tour, particularly around shorter formats and the coaching dilemma. 

As Mouratoglou has preached in the build-up to his event: 'Stagnation is decadence, but motion is value.' From a point of unavoidable stagnation, tennis is creeping towards motion again. 

It won't be the usual Sue Barker-fronted Wimbledon build-up and we will cherish normality when it returns in 2021. But it's incomparable and unpredictable – which might be just what the sport needs right now.