WTA Tour adds two $125K series events in Prague e Portschach to provisional calendar

While some tournaments continue to be cancelled across the tennis circuit due to the current health crisis, the WTA Tour has added two 125K Series events to the 2020 provisional calendar. These events will be held at the end of August in Europe.

WTA Tour adds two 125K Series events to the 2020 provisional calendar 

As per the WTA Tour website, the two 125K Series events will be held during the week of August 31 in Prague, Czech Republic, and Portschach, Austria. 

In normal circumstances, the US Open also holds a qualifying draw where 96 players compete for a chance to qualify for the main draw and a doubles draw with 64 teams in it. Due to the current pandemic, the USTA has decided to not hold the qualifying event in 2020 and the doubles draw has been reduced to 32 teams. There is also no mixed doubles event at the US Open this year.

These two $125K events will provide opportunities for players to compete who have been affected by the absence of the qualifying draw and the reduced doubles draw at the US Open Grand Slam event. The prize money for these two WTA $125K events has been subsidised by the USTA.

The WTA Tour had been suspended in March due to the global pandemic. The Tour resumed in Palermo last week and events are being held in Prague, Czech Republic and Lexington, United States this week. The Western & Southern Open and the US Open Grand Slam events are also scheduled in New York in the upcoming weeks.

After the US Open, there are also clay court events on the provisional schedule as of now, including Istanbul, Strasbourg, Rome and the French Open in September.

WTA events in China during the fall season have been cancelled and some other events in the fall season in Asia and Europe remain on the provisional schedule as of now. The WTA Tour has said that it would continue to work on updating the provisional calendar as the situation keeps evolving in the coming weeks and months.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women. Ash Barty is the current No. 1 player on the WTA Tour, followed by Romania's Simona Halep, and Czech player Karolina Pliskova.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2XUCI3p