The suspension of tennis globally has been extended through to June 7, due to the continuing spread of COVID19, Coronavirus worldwide.
The extension was announced in a joint statement released by the ATP and WTA stating:
“After careful consideration, and due to the continuing outbreak of COVID-19, all ATP and WTA tournaments in the spring clay-court swing will not be held as scheduled. This includes the combined ATP/WTA tournaments in Madrid and Rome, along with the WTA events in Strasbourg and Rabat and ATP events in Munich, Estoril, Geneva and Lyon.”
The announcement was followed by confirmation that the ATP and WTA world rankings will be frozen until further notice. This was following concern that players could find their current rankings unfairly harmed by the suspension of the tour.
The further suspension of the tour comes as no surprise, arriving just days after the announcement that the French Open, normally the second grand slam of the season, would be moved from its scheduled start date of May 24 to a proposed September 20 start date.
Such a date would mean, however, that the clay court major would begin just one week after the completion of the US Open due as ever to take place on the hard courts of New York’s Flushing Meadows between August 24 and September 13.
As it stands all tennis tournaments scheduled to be held beyond the current suspension end date of June 7 are to go ahead as previously planned but with no end date to the coronavirus pandemic currently insight major concern remains over whether the grass court season, including Wimbledon, due to get underway on June 9, will be able to go ahead as scheduled.
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