Tennis pushes back return to August

PARIS • The ATP and WTA tours and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) have extended their suspensions of professional tennis until July 31 owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the governing bodies said on Friday.

The men's ATP and women's WTA circuits announced last month they were suspending all tournaments until July 13.

Following the extension of the suspension, the WTA said it will provide an update next month on the tournaments scheduled for the latter half of July.

The ATP also said "a further update on the ATP Tour calendar is expected in mid-June" but tournaments taking place from Aug 1 are still planning to proceed.

Eight ATP events in Hamburg, Bastad, Newport, Los Cabos, Gstaad, Umag, Atlanta and Kitzbuhel will not go ahead as scheduled, while four WTA events in Bastad, Lausanne, Bucharest and Jurmala scheduled for July will not be held.

"We continue to assess all of our options in an effort to resume the Tour as soon as it is safe to do so, including the feasibility of rescheduling events later in the season," ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said in a statement.

While for tournament owners it is a blow, the decision was hardly unexpected.

The Croatia Open in the picturesque setting of Umag on the Adriatic is one of the most popular ATP tournaments and is in the process of improving the show court named after former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic.

"I believe that all of us will feel a bit empty without Stella Maris (the name of the venue) and its July buzz," tournament director Lawrence Frankopan said.

"But the health and safety of our players and fans are the most important. This cancellation is an even bigger reason for all of us to feel excited about July 2021 and the 31st edition of the tournament."

The WTA said in a statement it would make a decision on tournaments in Palermo and Karlsruhe, which were to begin on July 20 and 28 respectively, when the announcements to its revised calendar are made next month.

The ITF said all events - including ITF Juniors, Seniors, Uniqlo Wheelchair Tennis Tour, Beach Tennis Tour and the men's and women's ITF World Tennis Tour - would be suspended.

However, the ITF suspensions will not affect any of the Grand Slams, with the June 29-July 12 Wimbledon already cancelled for the first time since World War II.

The US Open is scheduled to begin on Aug 31 while the postponed French Open is now due to start on Sept 20.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE