Wimbledon and other grass-court tournaments ‘remain on calendar as scheduled at this time’

ATP Tour
Wimbledon overview

Wimbledon and the rest of grass-court tournaments are still going ahead as planned as things stand, but ATP President Andrea Gaudenzi admits they have to keep all their options open.

Sporting calendars across the globe have been thrown into disarray due to the coronavirus pandemic and tennis officials opted to suspend all tournaments until June 7.

Gaudenzi, though, concedes that they are not 100% sure if the Tour will resume on June 8 as it is “an evolving situation”.

“Unfortunately, the repercussions from the COVID-19 pandemic are being felt across all areas of society, as well as by our players, tournaments, and the Tour,” he told ATPTour.com. “This is bigger than any sport. The current situation raises many questions which we empathize with greatly, and we are working hard on evaluating all options.

“Our ability to address any supportive measures will be best guided once we know the duration of the crisis and when the Tour will resume, which remains unknown at this time. This remains an evolving situation that will require significant time to deal with in the coming weeks and months, and we must avoid making any rushed decisions without knowing first when the crisis will end. Understanding the full duration and scale of this crisis will be critical to addressing any measures related to its repercussions.”

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The clay-court season has already been wiped out while 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been postponed until next year, but officials are hopeful that the grass-court campaign will go ahead as scheduled with Wimbledon keeping its June 29-July 6 slot.

“We continue to assess all options related to preserving and maximising the calendar based on various return dates for the Tour,” the ATP chief said.

“It goes without saying that full cooperation with the other governing bodies is essential. We are in close discussion with all the grass-court events and they remain on the calendar as scheduled at this time.

“The reality is this is a rapidly evolving situation and there is no option other than to take this day-by-day and week-by-week.”

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