The ATP and WTA seasons remain frozen but the tours are still actively planning their return and factoring in multiple scenarios in addition to the current earliest estimated return date of July 13.
AP reporter Howard Fendrich has heard from both tours and he reports that they are planning for the possibility of playing into late November and December if the world has made enough progression in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic by then.
The WTA “is diligently working with our tournaments to maximize earning possibilities when the professional tennis circuit is able to resume and is considering an extension to the current 44-week season to enable more tournaments to take place,” WTA chief Steve Simon told the AP. The ATP echoed similar sentiments.
“Nothing is ruled out at this stage,” ATP chief Andrea Gaudenzi said in a statement.
“We are currently assessing a number of revised calendars based on different return dates for the Tour, with the aim of rescheduling as many tournaments as possible,” Gaudenzi said in a statement emailed to the AP. “We are liaising closely with the other governing bodies with the common goal of trying to salvage as much of the season as possible,” he said, “once it is safe for the Tour to resume.”
The elephant in the room of course is the fact that many believe the tour will have difficulty re-starting in 2020 without a vaccine in place, and best estimates for that are for early in 2021. The good news is that the some countries have seen their rate of new infections and deaths start to decline.
But the progress of the virus has been staggering over the last month. It has taken out the sporting world including the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and devastated tennis, starting with the cancellation of Indian Wells on March 8, and leading to last week's cancellation of Wimbledon--the first time a tennis major has been cancelled since 1945.
Currently, as of Monday April 6, there are over 1.33 million confirmed Coronavirus cases and over 73,000 deaths due to Covid-19.
Tennis is in a difficult place because of the tour’s itinerant nature. And because many events, if rescheduled, would need to be held indoors if they were to take place in November or December.