Coronavirus pandemic: WTA suspends Tour until 2 May, impacts European clay court season

Women’s tennis tour, WTA, has joined the ATP and ITF in suspending tournaments due to the growing coronavirus pandemic. Upcoming tournaments in Stuttgart, Istanbul and Prague — all on clay — have been called off, it was announced on Monday.

“Due to the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak, the WTA tournaments in Stuttgart, Istanbul and Prague will not be held as scheduled. We regret this is the case for all of our loyal fans, players, sponsors and all those who support women’s professional tennis,” WTA said in a statement .

“At this point in time, the WTA Tour is now suspended until 2 May. We will make a decision in the week ahead regarding the remaining WTA European clay court events and will continue to monitor this situation closely and its impact on the 2020 WTA Tour season.”

The decision comes a week after year’s first Premier Mandatory event in Indian Wells was cancelled due to COVID-19. On Thursday, Miami Open — a Premier Mandatory — and Volvo Car Open in Charleston were cancelled. Then came the announcement of tournaments in Guadalajara and Bogota being called off as well.

The next tournament on the WTA calendar is the Madrid Open, on clay, also a Premier Mandatory, followed by events in Rome, Strasbourg and Morocco before the second grand slam of the year at Roland Garros in Paris, France from 24 May.

Follow LIVE updates on coronavirus pandemic here