ITF Press Release, July 22, 2020
The International Tennis Federation has today announced plans for the resumption of play on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors, the ITF Seniors Tour, the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour and the ITF Beach Tennis World Tour. The plans have been drawn up in collaboration with each tour’s committee and approved by the ITF Board, with the health and safety of all involved the primary focus in all decision-making.
Tournaments are currently set to resume on both the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and the ITF Beach Tennis World Tour in the week commencing 31 August 2020.
The ITF is working with tournament organisers to produce provisional calendars for the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors and the ITF Beach Tennis World Tour, and these will be available on itftennis.com in due course.
No firm dates have yet been set for a return to play on the ITF Seniors Tour or the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, but each tour’s committee has decided that there will be no resumption of play on either tour before the week commencing 31 August 2020.
Men’s and women’s events on the ITF World Tennis Tour are scheduled to resume in the week commencing 17 August 2020.
Tournament calendars will remain subject to change in reflection of the ongoing impact of Covid-19. All ITF tours have been suspended due to the pandemic since March this year, with rankings frozen as of 16 March 2020.
In order to support a safe return to international tennis tournaments, the ITF has devised protocols for all tournament hosts and participants that aim to mitigate the risk of exposure to, and spread of, Covid-19. The protocols will be updated on a regular basis as the global situation regarding Covid-19 continues to change. The protocols can be viewed here:
Return to Tennis – Participants
Return to Tennis – Tournament Organisers
Any tournament which goes ahead once the tours resume must also follow government requirements, where those requirements go beyond the ITF protocols.
ITF President, David Haggerty, said: “We are pleased to be announcing steps towards a return to competitive tennis across all ITF tours. This year has been a challenging one for all of us in the tennis world, and while we are all eager to resume the tours as soon as possible in order to restore playing and earning opportunities for players across the world, we must ensure that we take the appropriate steps to make events as safe as possible when they restart. We remain in constant communication with our member National Associations and will continue to support event hosts as the tour resumption dates draw nearer.”
