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Entire clay court season shelved, won't resume until June 7

The WTA and ATP Tours have jointly suspended their clay court seasons, with tennis on hold until ...



Entire clay court season shelv...
Other Sports

Entire clay court season shelved, won't resume until June 7

The WTA and ATP Tours have jointly suspended their clay court seasons, with tennis on hold until June 7. 

The decision follows that of Roland Garros organisers to postpone this year's French Open until late September.

The ATP had already suspended its calendar until late April at the earliest, while the WTA was due to resume in the first week of May.

But the continued coronavirus crisis has led both tours to take drastic action.

Their statement on the matter came with a barb to organisers of Roland Garros, whose decision to move the French Open has already caused friction with those behind the US Open, which is scheduled to finish just a week before the re-housed championships in Paris.

The ATP/WTA statement pleads for unity at a difficult time for tennis, "Now is not a time to act unilaterally, but in unison.

"All decisions related to the impact of the coronavirus require appropriate consultation and review with the stakeholders in the game, a view that is shared by ATP, WTA, ITF, AELTC, Tennis Australia, and USTA."

They hope to have their seasons back up and running in time for the grass court season in early June.

The All England Club have already stated their intention to press on with this year's Wimbledon Championships as planned from June 29.

The joint ATP/WTA statement reads:

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 professional tennis season is now suspended through 7 June 2020, including the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour. At this time, tournaments taking place from 8 June 2020 onwards are still planning to go ahead as per the published schedule.

In parallel, the FedEx ATP Rankings and WTA Rankings will be frozen throughout this period and until further notice.

The challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to professional tennis demand greater collaboration than ever from everyone in the tennis community in order for the sport to move forward collectively in the best interest of players, tournaments and fans.

We are assessing all options related to preserving and maximising 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.

Now is not a time to act unilaterally, but in unison. All decisions related to the impact of the coronavirus require appropriate consultation and review with the stakeholders in the game, a view that is shared by ATP, WTA, ITF, AELTC, Tennis Australia, and USTA.

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ATP Tour Clay Court Coronavirus Covid-19 Flushing Meadows French Open Roland Garros Tennis US Open WTA Tour Wimbledon