ITF ANNOUNCES FURTHER SUSPENSION ACROSS ALL TOURS
(April 1, 2020) 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.”
