ATP adjusts 2021 tennis calendar with Indian Wells on hold

Desert drought: the Indian Wells Masters tournament has been dropped from the ATP calendar 'due to the impact of COVID-19' - AFP

PARIS (AFP): The coronavirus pandemic continues to reshape the men’s tennis calendar with Indian Wells absent from the schedule for the eight weeks following the Australian Open, released by the ATP this week.

Indian Wells in California is traditionally the first Masters event of the year on the men’s tour and runs alongside a women’s tournament.

The ATP said that “due to the impact of COVID-19” it would not be held on “its customary dates in March.” The tournament organisers released a statement saying: “This decision was made after thorough consultation with state and local health authorities.” “The tournament is proactively working with the ATP and WTA Tours as well as title sponsor BNP Paribas to confirm dates later in the year to hold the event.” California is suffering a spike in virus cases.

“As of 28 December, California has 2,155,976 confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in 24,284 deaths. The number of COVID-related deaths increased by 0.3% from the prior day total of 24,220,” the state government said on Monday.

The tournament organisers said they anticipated that new dates would be arranged.

The Australian Open, originally scheduled to start on 18 January, had already been pushed back to 8-21 February in a reconfigured schedule for the first seven weeks of 2021 released on 17 December. On Tuesday, the ATP said that the Australian Open, the men’s tour would be followed by European indoor events and swings through Latin American and the Middle East leading up to the Miami Open, a Masters event, from 24 March to 4 April.

Under the revised schedule, the week following the Australian Open will offer tournaments in Cordoba in Argentina and Montpellier in France. They replace events in Santiago in Chile, which has been pushed back two weeks, Acapulco and Dubai, which have been pushed back by three weeks.

The following three weeks, which had been left blank in the ATP schedule, now contain tournaments.

Rotterdam and Buenos Aires host events starting on Monday, 1 March and Santiago, Doha and Marseille hold tournaments the following week.

The tournaments in Acapulco and Dubai will be played in the week of 8 March.

The ATP had already announced that events not taking place in 2021 due to the pandemic would include the ASB Classic in Auckland and the New York Open, while the Maharashtra Open in India is under a cloud.

The Rio Open will not take place as originally scheduled, with the ATP saying alternative dates were being considered.

The ATP said that “all subsequent sections of the 2021 calendar, beginning with the spring clay-court season from week 14, remain unchanged at this time.” It said it was looking at the possibility of adding one-off tournaments to fill gaps in the schedule.