Today’s announcements by the All England Lawn Tennis Club and LTA to cancel The Championships, Wimbledon, and the UK grass court season respectively, include the cancellation of ITF’s grass court events on the ITF World Tennis Tour and UNIQLO Wheelchair Tour.
In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the ITF has also suspended the ITF World Tennis Tour until 13 July 2020, aligning with the ATP and WTA’s decision to extend the suspensions of their respective tours. At present, tournaments taking place from 13 July 2020 onwards are still planning to proceed as per the published schedule.
In addition to the suspension of the men’s and women’s ITF World Tennis Tour, the ITF will also suspend the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors (including all ITF Junior team competitions), UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, ITF Beach Tennis World Tour, and ITF Seniors Tour through to 13 July 2020. This includes postponement of the ITF Beach Tennis World Cup due to be played in Moscow in July.
Three Davis Cup regional group events (in Congo, North Macedonia and Turkmenistan) and four Fed Cup by BNP Paribas regional group events (in Bolivia, Lithuania, Malaysia and Panama), scheduled to be played during the week commencing 8 June, have also been postponed. These events will be rearranged for a later date.
The ITF will continue to review the COVID-19 situation, alongside the ATP, WTA and Grand Slam tournaments and other tennis stakeholders, with the aim of resuming ITF events as soon as it is safe to do so. Further updates will be provided in due course.
ITF President David Haggerty said, "Protecting the health and well-being of all those involved in tennis as well as the wider public has been and remains our priority. We recognise the significant impact these decisions will have across the sport and do not take them lightly, however, we must continue to be guided by experts and evidence. Our sport is in uncharted territory, but we are committed to taking a proactive and responsible approach to meet the challenges we are facing."
Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
