NEW YORK • The path continues to get bumpier for the professional tennis tours as they attempt to salvage seasons disrupted by the coronavirus crisis.

For now, both the ATP and the WTA Tour are set to resume play next month - the men in Washington DC and the women in Palermo, Italy. But last week came news that, for now, the European Union would deny entry to travellers from certain countries, including the United States and Russia.

It is unclear whether athletes will be exempt, and there are still concerns about the possibility of mandatory quarantines.

Tennis was then hit by a double-whammy when China's General Administration of Sport said the country would not host any international sports events for the remainder of the year due to the pandemic.

The news has also thrown Formula One's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, which has yet to be rescheduled following its delay from April, into doubt, along with the Badminton World Federation's World Tour Finals in Guangzhou, scheduled for December.

If the ban comes into effect, it would be a significant blow to the ATP, which has tournaments scheduled in Beijing and Shanghai.

But it would be a much bigger blow to the WTA, which has made China one of its focal points and has seven events provisionally scheduled there in October and November.

Those include the Wuhan Open, a potentially symbolic event for the city that was hit first by the coronavirus, and above all, the WTA Finals.

The season-ending event in Shenzhen - it was previously staged in Singapore for five years until 2018 - provides the tour with the bulk of its revenue, with US$14 million (S$19.5 million) in prize money.

However, Steve Simon, the chief executive of the WTA Tour, has said his understanding was that the report from the sports administration was a recommendation, not a ruling.

He added that the WTA was still engaged in dialogue with the Chinese Tennis Association and government officials.

"There haven't been any final decisions," Simon said. "It's obviously something that ultimately the central government will utilise to make decisions.

"There's still a conversation being held and an evaluation being done within the region."

With its China swing in peril, he revealed that the WTA was considering staging tournaments in other locations late in the season but the chances of moving its finals elsewhere on short notice were "remote". The circuit has no pandemic insurance for the showpiece event, though Simon insisted that the tour would survive a cancellation.

"The hole that we have will certainly be bigger and deeper," he said. "But we do have plans in place that will allow us to come out of it and be OK. It will be a challenge, but we will be able to continue."

Resuming play remains the objective this year, some five months after the sport was shutdown by the Covid-19 crisis.

But it has become increasingly clear that if there is a restart, the tours will be even further from business as usual than expected.

Many events, including the US Open, scheduled to start in New York on Aug 31, have long planned to go ahead without spectators.

Travel restrictions and recent adjustments to the tours' ranking systems, however, could result in unequal access for players and significantly weaker fields for the hard-court Grand Slam and others.

Chris Widmaier, a spokesman for the US Tennis Association (USTA), said officials were working with the US government to clarify the rules on quarantine and access for athletes and their teams when they enter the country.

He added that the USTA was also working with the tours, the French Tennis Federation and other entities to ensure that players would be able to travel freely to Europe after the US Open.

There are major clay-court events in Madrid and Rome just after the US Open and the concern is that players might simply choose to stay in Europe to prepare for the Sept 27-Oct 11 French Open rather than travel to New York.

Rafael Nadal, the reigning US Open champion, already has committed to Madrid but not yet to an appearance at Flushing Meadows.

If immigration concerns can be resolved, logistical issues would still remain for sports of a global nature, realistically for the rest of the year.

"Even if you ease travel restrictions, you still have the availability of flights and getting the airlines back up to levels that allow you to travel," Simon said.

NYTIMES