⁍ The WTA has a strategy in place to cope with the financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
⁍ The elite women’s Tour will not return to any semblance of normality before 2022.
⁍ All of its tournaments in China this year were cancelled on Friday.
– The world’s No. 1 women’s tennis tour is set to return to competition in August after a five-month hiatus caused by the H1N1 flu outbreak. But WTA CEO Steve Simon tells Reuters that while the tour has a strategy in place to deal with the financial strain caused by the virus, he doesn’t expect normalcy to return until at least 2022. “If we’re not operating and you’re losing 50 to 60% of your year, your financials and your revenues are going to drop significantly,” Simon says. “Do we have some big challenges financially? Absolutely. But we do have a strategy, we do have a plan in place that’s going to allow us to operate.” The virus has hit the tour especially hard in China, where the country’s Sports Ministry announced Friday that it would not host any international events this year apart from the 2022 Winter Olympics, the AP reports. The Chinese Tennis Association has called off all its tournaments for the rest of the year, including the $14 million season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tennis-women/wta-can-weather-revenue-hit-but-no-normalcy-until-2022-ceo-idUSKCN24Q0G4