German, French players forced to pull out of Nur-Sultan and leave Kazakhstan

German and French players at the Nur-Sultan Challenger had to leave Kazakhstan before midnight otherwise they would be placed in quarantine, a player confirmed to Florian Heer of Tennis TourTalk. 

On Tuesday, it was announced that Kazakhstan was adding Germany, France, Italy and Spain to their travel ban list as they were taking extra measures in their fight against the coronavirus. 

A day later, three players scheduled to play at the Nur-Sultan Challenger pulled out of the event just before their matches and the tournament listed the reason for their withdrawals as "non-medical."

Germany's Mats Moraing kicked off his Nur-Sultan campaign on Tuesday with a straight-set over Michael Vrbensky before he decided to pull out of the event a day later. 

Meanwhile, second-seeded German Yannick Maden and French No. 9 seed Enzo Couacaud didn't even have a chance to take the court in Nur-Sultan as they had a first round bye at the tournament before they withdrew. 

The news comes just days after the Indian Wells Masters became the first major United States sporting event to get cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/339Ta0Y