Wimbledon Canceled: A ‘Kick in the Gut’ Not Felt Since World Wars

“At present there are just no easy options; the way ahead is hard,” said Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, who tested positive for the novel coronavirus last week.

Organizers at the All England Club, which stages Wimbledon, said the restrictions on large gatherings, travel and the strain on medical services made it impossible to prepare for the tournament properly without putting people at risk.

Even though the government restrictions are to be reviewed later this month, the organizers wanted to quickly give certainty to players and others in the sport.

The cancellation was immediately followed by the suspension of the preliminary grass-court season, halting all men’s and women’s tournaments until July 13. No tour events have been held since early March, which means the forced hiatus for the players will last four months, and possibly much longer.

“It’s a definite realization that the tour might be canceled for 2020,” John Isner, long the top-ranked American men’s player, said by telephone from his home in Dallas. “With Wimbledon being gone and with New York City essentially being the epicenter of all of this crisis currently, the U.S. Open is next. And there are countless U.S. Open warm-up events as well, so we would need this situation to get better very quickly.”

The pressure to stage at least some tour events before the end of the year will be significant because players have lost months of income. The challenge is that tennis is among the most global of sports, and countries that have shut down travel and restricted public gatherings are unlikely to lift those measures at the same time. This could create inequities.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/sports/tennis/wimbledon-canceled-coronavirus.html