Today the news came that the Men’s (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Associations (WTA) have decided to cancel events through May due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Originally, both tennis tours were put on hold through March 30 which canceled the Indian Wells event and the Miami Open.
All of the April events were then suspended and now we have news that all of the events through May are all postponed.
While this is an on-going tribulation that could last into the summer months, the FedEx ATP Rankings and WTA Rankings will be frozen for now.
The Tennis Federations sent out a media alert stating that “We are assessing all options related to preserving and maximizing the tennis calendar based on various return dates for the Tours, which remains an unknown at this time. We are committed to working through these matters with our player and tournament members, and the other governing bodies, in the weeks and months ahead.”
Including Indian Wells and the Miami Open, the Men’s side of the tour will now be skipping the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas. Also, the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakesh, Morocco has been canceled which was to take place the first week of April.
The April 13 Monte-Carlo Masters in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France has been PPD.
Both of the April 20 events are canceled. That takes the Barcelona Open in Barcelona, Spain and the Hungarian Open in Budapest, Hungary off the calendar.
Each of the April 27 events are now off the docket. That puts the Estoril Open in Estoril, Portugal and the Bavarian International Championships in Munich, Germany out of play.
Rolling into May, we will now be without the Madrid Open, Italian Open, Geneva Open, and the Lyon Open out of play. The French Open has already been moved to September that would have culminated the clay-court season at the end of the month.
As of now, this being March 20, 2020, the June 8 events are where we will supposedly be picking up all the pieces of the men’s season. The Grass portion of the tour is set to begin with the Stuttgart Open in Stuttgart, Germany on June 8 along with the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
On the Women’s side of the tour, they too had their Indian Wells and Miami Open stops canceled in March.
Here is the list of events that were taken off the board from the WTA docket starting in April:
April 6: Charleston Open in Charleston, South Carolina & the Copa Colsanitas in Bogotá, Colombia
April 13 Fed Cup Finals in Budapest, Hungary
April 20 Stuttgart Open in Stuttgart, Germany & the Ä°stanbul Open in Ä°stanbul, Turkey
April 27 Prague Open in Prague, Czech Republic
May 4 Madrid Open in Madrid, Spain
May 11 Italian Open in Rome, Italy
May 18 Internationaux de Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France & the Morocco Open in Rabat, Morocco
As it stands today, the June 8 events consisting of the Nottingham Open in Great Britain and the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands will be where the ladies pick up the pieces and restart the season.
Crazy, right? So much tennis being taken away from the players, the fans and the world during this harsh time. Most likely, other sports will announce lengthier postponements of their schedule.
So you might be asking … are any sports still being played at the moment? Other than some small club-friendly soccer matches in Sweden and Russia, you’re only going to find eSports because everyone is at home playing video games.
We might not see may sports back before June, so buckle up for a long ride! Stay safe, be well, and I will offer any updates I can as they become available.
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