BNP Paribas Open Tennis Tournament Is Postponed due to Coronavirus

Indian Wells is not among the sport’s four Grand Slam tournaments, but it is in the next tier of importance for both the men’s and women’s tours. Officials have been scrambling for weeks to try to find a way to salvage the event as rates of coronavirus infection increase in the United States, especially in California.

The tournament, known informally as the “Fifth Slam,” represents a rare chance to promote the sport with nearly all of the top players in the world in the United States. Now, those players will most likely appear in the United States at the Miami Open in late March, assuming that tournament remains on the schedule, and then return after Wimbledon in midsummer for the hardcourt season that culminates with the United States Open in late August.

The announcement of the change was the latest disruption in a sport that shut down for five months this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, starting with the Indian Wells tournament.

The 2020 Australian Open was held as usual in January, but the three other Grand Slam events were disrupted. Wimbledon was canceled for the first time since World War II. The United States Open started in New York in late August, as scheduled, but without spectators, and with most players cloistered in a pair of Long Island hotels when they were not competing. The start of the French Open was moved to late September from late May. It took place in front of just a smattering of spectators in cool, blustery conditions.

Now the schedule for the first quarter of 2021 has essentially been redrawn. The Australian Open moved from the last two weeks in January to the middle two weeks in February. Several tuneup tournaments have been shifted or canceled.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/sports/tennis/indian-wells-bnp-paribas-open.html