When will tennis return? Has Wimbledon been cancelled? What has the ATP Tour said? Will Andy Murray play in 2020?
The world of tennis has been put on hold as the sport continues to be gripped by the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2020 calendar has been halted with no action since the beginning of March.
Novak Djokovic and Sofia Kenin claimed glory at the year’s first Grand Slam, the Australian Open, in January but the other Majors are in major doubt.
The world tours are on hiatus and there are many questions to be asked.
The 2020 Wimbledon tournament has been cancelled
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When will tennis return?
It was announced on April 1, that the ATP and WTA Tours will remain suspended until July 13 due to the coronavirus.
All tournaments originally scheduled to be held in April, May and June have been cancelled.
Play is currently slated to restart at the Hamburg European Open starting from July 13.
But the situation is clearly changing day-by-day and this may have to be altered.
Indian Wells, the Monte-Carlo Masters, the Madrid Open, The Halle Open and Queen’s are among the tournaments to have been suspended.
What about the Grand Slams?
The 2020 Australian Open has already been held but major question marks remain over this year’s other three Grand Slams.
It was confirmed on April 1 that the 134th edition of Wimbledon has been cancelled completely this year.
The French Open, originally planned for May 25 to June 1, has been postponed until September.
The US Open is currently still slated to go ahead as planned between August 31 and September 7 but this could well be changed too.
The ATP Finals in London are still set to go ahead as planned from November 16.
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Why was Wimbledon cancelled?
The All-England club cancelled this year’s Wimbledon after an emergency board meeting earlier this month.
This will be the first time it hasn’t be held since World War II.
The All England Club said in a statement: “It is with great regret that the AELTC has today decided that The Championships 2020 will be cancelled due to public health concerns linked to the coronavirus epidemic.
“Uppermost in our mind has been the health and safety of all of those who come together to make Wimbledon happen – the public in the UK and visitors from around the world, our players, guests, members, staff, volunteers, partners, contractors, and local residents – as well as our broader responsibility to society’s efforts to tackle this global challenge to our way of life.
“Since the emergence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in January, we have followed guidance from the UK Government and public health authorities in relation to our year-round operations, alongside developing an understanding of the likely trajectory of the outbreak in the UK.
“With the likelihood that the Government’s measures will continue for many months, it is our view that we must act responsibly to protect the large numbers of people required to prepare The Championships from being at risk.
“From the training of ball boys and girls to thousands of officials, line judges, stewards, players, suppliers, media and contractors who convene on the AELTC Grounds – and equally to consider that the people, supplies and services legally required to stage The Championships would not be available at any point this summer, thus ruling out postponement.”
The 134th Championships will instead be staged from 28 June to 11 July 2021.
Andy Murray is looking forward to returning to the tennis court later this year
What have the stars said?
British superstar Andy Murray, who had been hoping to make his comeback from injury at Wimbledon, said: “I’m sure all tennis players want to get back to playing and competing as soon as possible. But right now that’s just not the most important thing.
“We want, first of all, just to get our normal lives back.
“Just being able to go out and go see friends and go to restaurants and just have the normal freedoms that you have and then hopefully over time things will start to allow for traveling and then hopefully sport.
“The first thing is to try to find a way to stop the virus spreading and then once we’ve done that, we’ll be able to do more normal things that everybody does rather than thinking about competing at sport.
“A lot of people want to watch sport again, so obviously the athletes and the players would love to be competing and lots of people love to watch sport because it’s entertaining and it’s something that lots and lots of people enjoy.
“When you don’t get to see it for a while, then people realise maybe how much they love playing it and how much they enjoy watching it.
“But just because it’s difficult to not have sport just now doesn’t mean that we have to speed things up… let’s just focus on getting our normal lives back first and hopefully all of the countries can sort out the virus properly.”
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