Coronavirus cancelling tennis events worldwide
Like many other sports, tennis is also seeing cancellations left and right, as there will be no international tournaments at any level for at least six weeks.
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It all began Sunday, March 8, on the eve of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. The tournament made a shocking announcement that it would not be held this year due to there being a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the local area. The tournament, which is a Masters 1000 event on the ATP Tour and a Premier Mandatory event on the WTA Tour, was set to have its qualifying rounds begin the following morning. Often regarded as the “fifth Grand Slam,” Indian Wells’ cancellation set a precedent that many other major sporting events around the world followed, as it was the first major event to be completely cancelled. Organizers did say that they are looking to hold this year’s tournament at a later date, though the future is too uncertain at the moment for anything to be planned.
Despite that, lower level professional tournaments and junior tournaments still took place all over the world. That was until Thursday, when the International Tennis Federation announced that it was suspending all tennis until April 20, effective immediately. The news came as a huge blow to numerous tennis players with lower rankings. For example, Greece’s Despina Papamichail (world number 264) and Valentini Grammatikopoulou (world number 300) were in Brazil, where each were set to compete in a series of three consecutive tournaments, the first of which was just underway. Unfortunately for them, they both had to leave Brazil sooner than anticipated, as was the case for the majority of tennis players all over the world.
With many ATP and WTA tournaments being called off, the upcoming European clay court season is also in serious doubt. With the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Monte Carlo and WTA Premier tournament in Stuttgart already being cancelled, things are not off to a good start. It remains to be seen whether the season’s second and third Grand Slam events (the French Open and Wimbledon) will be able to be played. Following that would be the Olympics, and then the US Open.
Changes are expected to be made in the ranking systems across all levels of tennis, which are based on points gained in the past 52 weeks. As players will not be able to defend their points from last year, a great imbalance would be the result of dropping points from players’ rankings weekly without giving them the opportunity to gain any points. A decision has yet to be made, as tennis’ governing bodies are still deciding what to do regarding the rankings. It should be mentioned that the rankings are used for tournament entry cut-offs and seedings, and therefore are a vital part of the sport.
