Wimbledon chiefs ‘to stick with current arrangements’ instead of taking up vacant Olympics slot

Shahida Jacobs
March 25, 2020

Wimbledon 2020 will not be rescheduled to take up the vacant Olympics dates in the tennis calendar, with the All England Lawn Tennis Club reportedly saying it would “make little sense”.

This year’s The Championships is set to run from June 29 until July 7, but the coronavirus pandemic has thrown sports schedules across the globe into disarray.

As things stand, the entire clay-court season has already been cancelled with the tennis campaign only set to resume on June 8.

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

There have already been a few tweaks to the calendar as the French Open, which was originally set to start on May 24, has been rescheduled for September 20 while the Summer Olympic Games has been postponed until 2021.

It means there will be a vacant spot in the calendar as the Tokyo 2020 tennis tournament was due to run from July 25 until August 2.

There have been suggestions that Wimbledon should consider using the Olympics slot, but officials are not interested.

“Sources at the All England Club suggested on Tuesday that, amid the huge uncertainty, it makes little sense now to postpone The Championships from their current start date of June 29,” the Daily Mail reports.

“The delayed window is not considered significant enough extra time to warrant the enormous upheaval of rescheduling the big fortnight. For now the official policy is to stick with the current arrangements, even though major sports events are falling like nine pins.”

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