German tennis chief: ‘Wimbledon will be cancelled. There is no doubt about it’

Shahida Jacobs
March 30, 2020

Wimbledon will not take place in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic with German Tennis Federation (DTB) vice-president Dirk Hordorff saying playing at the All England Club in autumn “would be unthinkable”.

There will be no tennis until June 7 after the sport’s powers that be opted to cancel all tournaments due to COVID-19.

Although the campaign is due to get underway with the grass-court season, governing bodies have admitted that there are no guarantees that tennis will resume on June 8.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club confirmed last week that they would have an emergency board meeting in the next seven days to discuss whether or not The Championships should go ahead.

Hordorff, though, says the decision has already been made.

“Wimbledon has stated that they will have a board meeting next Wednesday and will make the final decision there,” he told Sky Sport.

“I am also involved in the bodies of the ATP and WTA. The necessary decisions have already been made there and Wimbledon will decide to cancel next Wednesday. There is no doubt about it. This is necessary in the current situation.

“It is completely unrealistic to imagine that with the travel restrictions that we currently have an international tennis tournament, where hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world would travel. That is unthinkable.”

Roland Garros organisers jumped the gun earlier in March as they announced that the French Open, which was due to start end of May, would be moved to September.

Their decision did not go down well with a lot of people, but Hordorff doesn’t think Wimbledon is not really in a position to reschedule the tournament due to conditions.

“Wimbledon has its own laws due to the lawn and the special lighting conditions,” he said. “Wimbledon was the only Grand Slam tournament many years ago predictive enough to insure itself against a worldwide pandemic, so that the financial damage should be minimised there.

“Of course Wimbledon also has enough reserves to last for several years. Wimbledon in the period of September, October, when nobody knows whether you can play, would be unthinkable due to the lawn situation.”

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