It may be just a matter of a few days before professional tennis announces the restart of its activity after it was brought to a screeching halt by the COVID-19 pandemic last March.
An incautious tweet posted (and then subsequently cancelled) by Belgian player Alison Van Uytvack shows a provisional calendar that would have the WTA Tour resume its course at the beginning of August. On the week of 3 August, the picture of a “working calendar as of 1 June” shows the WTA Premier tournament of Charleston and the WTA International of Palermo in Italy, with the International tournaments in Washington and Prague to follow on the week of 10 August.
Ubitennis has learned that the events in Charleston and Prague have now been canceled, and the WTA is working on two alternative calendars that would have Washington and Palermo take place in either of the first two weeks. With the cancelation of the tournament in Prague, Palermo would remain the only event in Europe, with all other summer tournaments to take place in North America as usual.
The Cincinnati Premier 5 should remain in its original slot on the week of 17 August, but it could be moved from Ohio to Flushing Meadows to be co-located with the US Open, still planned to start on 31 August. Following the Major in the USA, an impressive sequence of back-to-back tournaments would see players compete in the Premier Mandatory in Madrid the week after the end of the US Open, immediately followed by the Premier 5 in Rome and then Roland Garros, starting on 27 September.
After the two weeks in Paris, the WTA Tour would move straight to Beijing for the last Premier Mandatory of the season, and then it would go to Wuhan for the Premier 5 to be played in the city where the COVID-19 pandemic originated at the beginning of the year.
The Chinese swing is very important for the WTA, which is heavily dependent on the generous investments of Chinese tournaments on women’s tennis. Two more tournaments are scheduled to be held in China: a WTA International in Nanchang on the same week as the Wuhan Premier 5 (19 October), and a WTA Premier in Zhengzhou (26 October).
The tour would then terminate with two events in Europe (an International in Linz, Austria on the week of 26 October, and a Premier in Moscow on the following week) and one in Tokyo, Japan, before the WTA Championships in Shenzhen starting on 9 November.
The calendar then shows also a week dedicated to the WTA Elite Trophy, an event that is dedicated to the best players not taking part in the WTA Championships. The tournament is due to be held in Zhuhai, China for the sixth year in a row.
Of course, the situation is very fluid and things can change quickly, but if everything were to remain as it is, we would see two Majors, five Premier 5 or Mandatory and the two Final tournaments within a 15-week timeframe.
No indications have transpired as to what the ATP Tour calendar will look like. It is reasonable to assume that the two Majors and the combined tournament in Cincinnati, Madrid and Rome would take place on the weeks indicated by the draft WTA tournament, but it is unclear whether the ATP 500 in Beijing will be played alongside the WTA Premier Mandatory immediately after the end of Roland Garros, or whether the Masters 1000 in Shanghai will be slotted in instead.
We should not have to wait much longer: conference calls among the ATP and WTA management as well as the tournament directors are planned in the next few days and an announcement should follow soon.
