Bad but expected news after the WTA announced the suspension of the tour until the 2nd of May. Eventually, the organization had to cancel 3 more tournaments: Stuttgart, Prague and Istanbul.
The organization released the following statement:
“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.
At this point in time, the WTA Tour is now suspended until May 2. 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 organisation of the WTA in Stuttgart released the following statement:
“Due to the worldwide spread of the coronavirus, the Porsche AG decided not to hold this year’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
“We’re extremely sorry that the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix cannot be played this year”, states Tournament Director Markus Günthardt and adds: “We would have loved to have once again offered the region’s fans world-class tennis in the Porsche Arena. The special circumstances unfortunately prevent the tournament from taking place. The health of the players, ball girls, spectators and all the other staff is the highest priority for us. We are looking forward to the 2021 tournament from 17 to 25 April.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9y7JFFiip-/
This means that the next tournaments in line will be Madrid and Rome. However, there are even some doubts that the entire clay-court season will be cancelled.
Time will tell.
WTA Statement on upcoming clay court swing:
Due to the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak, the WTA tournaments in Stuttgart, Istanbul and Prague will not be held as scheduled.
At this point in time, the WTA Tour is now suspended until May 2 —> https://t.co/MWcRZERqIq pic.twitter.com/bgxXXXniIH
— wta (@WTA) March 16, 2020
