COVID-19: After Roland Garros is postponed, Wimbledon faces doubts

The French Open is postponed by at least four months and it wouldn't happen until September due to the recent coronavirus outbreak.

The Roland Garros event was originally scheduled to start on May 26. However, based on the recent pandemic developments, the tournament's organisers have pushed back the date. As reports claim, the clay-court Grand Slam event will now run between September 20 and October 4, 2020.

It is expected that the move might cause havoc in the annual tennis calendar. Roger Federer's brainchild; the Laver Cup is set to take place between September 25-27 in Boston. As a result, Roland Garros' timing will clash with it. Similarly, it would also witness a conflict with the Premier 5 WTA event in Wuhan and other ATP and WTA tournaments.

The ATP and WTA competitions are likely to be rearranged, as most professionals will choose to play a Grand Slam instead of the smaller tournaments.

The US Open ends on September 13, which means that the participants will experience a quick turnaround after competing on the hard courts in New York. Consequently, it is very unlikely that any clay-court warm-up events could be seamlessly scheduled in between the two competitions.

The French Open organisers released a statement, which reads, "The current confinement measures have made it impossible for us to continue with the dates originally planned. The whole world is affected by the public health crisis connected with COVID-19. In order to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved in organising the tournament, the French Tennis Federation has made the decision to hold the 2020 edition of Roland-Garros from 20th September to 4th October 2020."

The French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli described the decision to postpone Roland Garros as a difficult yet brave decision considering the unprecedented situation the world is witnessing currently.

This has been the first time that a Grand Slam competition is affected by the pandemic. Wimbledon is the next major tennis tournament on the calendar, which is set to start in England during late June this year.

Given the spread of COVID-19 around the world, only time could reveal whether the 2020 Wimbledon Championships could be organised as per its original schedule. As of now, a thick cloud of doubt is hovering over the future of the tournament.