Tennis Canada stays “optimistic” the Rogers Cup will be played as scheduled following comments from Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley on Tuesday that the season could be lost due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The women’s tourney is slated for Aug. 7-16 in Montreal and the men’s event Aug. 8-16 in Toronto.
The men’s ATP Tour and the WTA, which runs the women’s circuit, have suspended all tournaments until June 7 after countries started locking down borders to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
“For the most part, all summer hard-court tournaments, including our events in Toronto and Montreal and culminating with the U.S. Open (in New York) are hopeful we can get tournaments in this year,” Gavin Ziv, managing director of Rogers Cup in Toronto, told CBC Sports.
“This will be taken out of our hands at some point. Community safety is paramount and you have to make sure you’re ready to run your big sporting events … when it’s safe for everyone to be there.”
The tennis season screeched to a halt in early March due to the respiratory illness, which has infected almost 800,000 in the world while killing over 38,500 since emerging in China late last year.
“My personal view is I think for tennis to come back this year is going to be tough,” Tiley told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
The Rogers Cup, which was founded in 1881 as the Canadian National Championships, has operated each year without postponement or cancellation in the Open Era since 1968 and is the third oldest tournament in the world behind Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
The Australian Open, which started in January, has so far been the only Grand Slam that was not affected in 2020 with the French Open organizers moving the clay-court major back to September from its May start.
Wimbledon organizers will report the cancellation of the grass-court Grand Slam this week, according to German Tennis Federation vice-president Dirk Hordorff.
Tiley stated TA was planning to run next year’s Australian Open on schedule.
