While the WTA season has officially been suspended until at least June 7th, the word is out that the COVID-19 pandemic will also ruin the 2020 grass-court season, as Wimbledon is expected to announce its cancellation in a couple of days, while when it comes to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the dates have been set now for July and August of 2021.
As per the latest WTA announcement, the women’s tennis officials hoped that the season would resume in time for the tournaments on grass, while the latest statement of the German Tennis Federation (DTB) vice-president, Dirk Hordorff, reveals that Wimbledon will confirm its cancellation on Wednesday.
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.
However, Wimbledon is not commenting on these claims yet. Originally, the Grand Slam has been scheduled to run from June 29th until July 11th, but Hordorff says that it’s not realistic to go ahead with the event that attracts people from all over the world:
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.
As the International Olympic Committee has confirmed, the upcoming Olympic Games, which will continue to be called Tokyo 2020, will be played from July 23rd, 2021 until August 8th after being postponed for a year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Hordorff also commented on the French Open’s shocking and abrupt decision to reschedule the tournament for the second half of September, when the Asian Swing is on the calendar:
The unilateral behavior of the organizers has been criticized by everyone and I can simply predict that the French Open will not be relocated as it was intended.
Hordorff added that either the French federation would go ahead with the new dates and feel the wrath of the tennis world or it has the option to start working with others to draw up a plan that makes sense for everyone.
