As the COVID-19 crisis continues to sweep the UK, the latest sporting event to face the axe is the annual prestigious tennis tournament at Wimbledon.
A series of meetings are underway in which the All England club will assess whether or not to cancel the tournament.
The Wimbledon championships haven’t been cancelled since World War II, but despite a final decision having yet to be made, it feels inevitable that the 2020 championships will be the first.
The tennis calendar, as with all other sports, has seen its calendar quite severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
The French Open tournament has been pushed back to late September and now, it looks as though Wimbledon is next to be changed – although it will likely be cancelled entirely rather than postponed.
“I guess everyone’s been waiting on it,” Britain’s Jamie Murray told the BBC.
Wimbledon cancelled
“It’s obviously the next big event in the tennis calendar that’s still on the calendar for the moment.”
It looks as though the entirety of the tennis grass court season is likely to be removed from the calendar this year. Murray says there are just too many factors to contend with therefore making postponement tough.
“I think for them, it’s difficult to move the tournament back because you’re running into other tournaments that are for the moment still on the schedule,” he explained.
“And also just things like daylight to host the event. Each week that passes, you get less and less light to play the tournament. And obviously they play until nine and 10 o’clock each night at Wimbledon.”
For now, the world of tennis is, alongside the rest of the world, waiting to see how the COVId-19 crisis plays out. It seems unlikely there will be any tennis played until the back end of summer at the very earliest.
For now, we just have to focus on getting through this crisis. Stay safe, stay indoors.
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