LONDON, (Reuters) – The re-scheduled French Open has been pushed back a further week and the ATP Tour and WTA Tour have both issued revised calendars as professional tennis gears up to emerge from the shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
An FFT statement said it had consulted with the ATP, WTA and International Tennis Federation (ITF) to allow the Roland-Garros showpiece the benefit of an extra week.
“We are delighted that consultation with the various international tennis authorities has enabled the 2020 edition of the Roland-Garros tournament to be extended to three weeks,” French tennis federation President Bernard Giudicelli said.
The men’s ATP Tour will resume on Aug. 14 with the Citi Open, ATP 500 event in Washington, D.C., while the first WTA event will be staged in Palermo, Italy from Aug. 3.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said its ITF World Tour, the domain of lower-ranked players, will resume on Aug. 3 for women and Aug. 17 for men.