How The Tennis Calendar Is Being Impacted By COVID-19

 

Top class tennis has gone into lockdown as worldwide concerns over the coronavirus outbreak continue to grow.

Both the ATP and WTA have announced the suspension of their respective tours due to increasing health and safety issues arising from the spread of COVID-19.

The announcements were made following the cancellation of the 2020 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells after a confirmed case of coronavirus in the local vicinity.

Read on as we take a closer look at the latest state-of-play and assess the potential timescale for a return to action.

Indian Wells cancellation sets the ball rolling

As one of the most popular events in the ATP calendar, the cancellation of the BNP Paribas Open was a big step for the organizers to make.

Novak Djokovic was a big favourite at https://gg.bet/en/tennis to win the tournament for a sixth time, but the Serbian was denied the chance to achieve the feat.

Within a few days of the cancellation of the tournament the ATP announced that it was instigating a six-week suspension of its events.

This will cover the Miami Open, US Men’s Clay Court Championships, Monte Carlo Masters, Barcelona Open and Hungarian Open.

The tour could resume with tournaments in Munich and Estoril on April 27, with the Madrid Open scheduled to take place during early May.

WTA extend tour lockdown

The WTA extended its lockdown to May 2 after confirming tournaments in Stuttgart, Istanbul and Prague were cancelled.

The tour was initially suspended until April 20, but the WTA decided to lengthen the period as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spiral.

Future tournaments in Madrid, Rome and Strasbourg are also under serious threat, leaving the world’s top stars facing over two months on the sidelines.

“We regret this is the case for all of our loyal fans, players, sponsors and all those who support women’s professional tennis,” a statement on the WTA website read.

“At this point in time, the WTA Tour is now suspended until 2 May. We will make a decision in the week ahead regarding the remaining WTA European clay court events and will continue to monitor this situation closely and its impact on the 2020 WTA Tour season.”

French Open under threat

The cancellation of events on the ATP and WTA tours increased the possibility that the French Open won’t be staged. The French government has banned public gatherings of more than 1,000 people until further notice, which raised the possibility that the event would be cancelled.

Tournament director, Guy Forget, had said that staging the second major of the season behind closed doors would be difficult but not impossible. However, with governments across Europe saying that the coronavirus issue could take months rather than weeks to resolve, Roland Garros made the announcement that they would stage their event starting in late September.

Wimbledon could also be in doubt, with organisers admitting that they are closely monitoring the current situation.