ATP, WTA further suspend tennis till June 7

Florida, March 19 (IANS) The suspension placed on men's and women's tennis has been further extended until June 7 due to the continuing outbreak of coronavirus.In a joint statement, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women's Tennis Association (WTA) said: "After careful consideration, and due to the continuing outbreak of COVID-19, all ATP and WTA tournaments in the Spring clay-court swing will not be held as scheduled.""This includes the combined ATP/WTA tournaments in Madrid and Rome, along with the WTA events in Strasbourg and Rabat and ATP events in Munich, Estoril, Geneva and Lyon."The professional tennis season is now suspended through June 7, including the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour," the statement further said.The organizations, however, said that tournaments taking place from June 8 onwards are still planning to go ahead as per the schedule.The announcement comes just after the French Open tournament, originally scheduled to be held from May 18 to June 7, has now been postponed to September. Last week, the ATP had announced a six-week suspension while WTA had postponed its forthcoming tournaments till May 2. Close to 9,000 people have so far lost their lives due to the coronavirus pandemic.
--IANS aak/rs/