The center court at Indian Wells Tennis is cleaned on Sunday as the WTA/ATP became the first big US sports event to be cancelled because of the coronavirus
The center court at Indian Wells Tennis is cleaned on Sunday as the WTA/ATP became the first big US sports event to be cancelled because of the coronavirus GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AL BELLO

KEY POINTS

  • The Indian Wells Masters was the first tournament canceled over the coronavirus scare
  • The ATP has taken it a step further with a six-week suspension
  • Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal remain on top of the rankings

The COVID-19 continues to impact the world with its major effects spreading across the world. The sporting community has lost various events already with the threat of the virus going around. Just a few weeks ago the Indian Wells Masters was canceled as a precautionary measure for the coronavirus.

Just recently the National Basketball Association has suspended their season indefinitely with two reported cases of players being tested positive with COVID-19. Rudy Gobert was the first case and was the cause for the entire stoppage of the season for now. His teammate and fellow All-Star Donovan Mitchell was the second player diagnosed with the virus.

The effects continue on with each day opening up new development. The ATP Tour has decided to suspend the games for the next six weeks.

The WTA is also affected as it canceled already the Volvo Car Open.

This means this will affect various tournaments that have already been laid out for the month and a half. The Miami Open announcing its cancellation as well, this will then affect Madrid and Rome as tournaments that might be pulled out in the near future.

Coach Simon Konov of Top Tennis Training also shared that this puts the French Open in a dangerous predicament of whether or not it will push through.

So far the other canceled tournaments are Houston, Marrakech, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Budapest.

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Rafael Nadal has taken to Twitter to share his thoughts on this coronavirus scare. He spoke about last week’s cancellation of the Indian Wells Tournament. He shared that they are waiting for further instructions on how to move forward from this situation.

The women’s draw has Australian Ashleigh Barty with Simona Halep trailing behind her on top of the tour standings. Nadal and Novak Djokovic lead the men’s draw, as they are neck and neck in the rankings. The two have been back and forth with Djokovic remaining on top of the world at number one. Nadal is close by at second while Roger Federer recovers from his knee surgery.

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