China cancels international sporting events for remainder of 2020

China has announced the cancellation of all international sporting events for the remainder of 2020, which will have a significant impact on the remainder of the tennis season.

Tennis – WTA Tour Finals – Shenzhen Bay Sports Center – Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China – November 3, 2019 Hungary’s Timea Babos and France’s Kristina Mladenovic react during their doubles final against Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova

Chris Oddo

July 9, 2020

China is cancelling all international sporting events for the remainder of 2020 in a move to contain the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Associated Press.

The mandate, which comes from the General Administration of Sports in China, promises to be a crippling one for the ATP and WTA Tours. The WTA has seven events on the calendar in China, including the lucrative WTA Finals in Shenzhen, scheduled from November 8-15, while the ATP has four events scheduled in China, including the Shanghai Masters (11-18 October).

Very rough news for the WTA in particular unless there is some loophole. Would wipe out most of their fall schedule and the WTA Finals in Shenzhen, which is the major revenue source for the tourhttps://t.co/kqjduQZ9rz

— Christopher Clarey 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 (@christophclarey) July 9, 2020

The WTA, in a statement released to Tennis Majors, says that the decision is not final as far as it is concerned.

“To our knowledge, the report that has been circulated regarding a principle on international sporting events in China does not represent a final decision,” the tour said in a statement. “The WTA continues to work closely with our events in China and the CTA and we will advise when we have more information. We remain on track with our decision timeline regarding the 2020 WTA Tour provisional calendar, which will be by the end of July.”

China has all but quelled the virus on its soil, save for minor flare-ups due to travel. The nation’s case count peaked in mid-February but since then has been brought down to virtually zero. China’s total case count stands at 84,950 with 4,641 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The decision is a move to avoid further increases that may come from international travel. The worldwide confirmed case count smashed through 12,000,000 yesterday, and is now averaging nearly 200,000 new confirmed cases each day. America has been hardest hit with over 3,000,000 confirmed cases registered. Brazil (over 1,700,000), India (over 750,000) and Russia (over 700,000) have also been under siege.