Hong Kong Tennis Open left off WTA’s provisional calendar but organisers hold out hope for new dates in 2020
- Hong Kong Tennis Association official says the body is in talks with the WTA to find another date with its traditional October slot cancelled for this year
- Organisers say the sponsor is still attached to the tournament, which was cancelled last year because of social unrest in Hong Kong
The Prudential Hong Kong Open has been left out of the WTA’s provisional calendar for 2020 but local organisers are confident the popular tournament can find a suitable date towards the end of the year.
The Women’s Tennis Association this week released its proposed schedule for when tennis returns in early August from its four and a half month Covid-19 shutdown.
The 2019 tournament was cancelled because of anti-government protests that had plagued Hong Kong since June last year. This year, the coronavirus pandemic forced almost all sports around the world to shut down, with the men’s and women’s elite tennis circuits coming to a halt in the second week of March.
“The dates in October are now cancelled and we at the HKTA are working closely with the WTA to determine a suitable date for this year’s event,” said Hong Kong Tennis Association spokeswoman Edith Lun.
Seven tournaments in China are on WTA’s provisional calendar including the Wuhan Open in the week starting October 19. Wuhan was the original epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 3,000 deaths in the city.