Tennis news - All tennis postponed until June 7 amid coronavirus pandemic

The announcement covers the joint tournaments in Madrid and Rome, two of the biggest dates on the regular circuit and the current plan is for both the ATP and WTA tours to reconvene on June 8 ahead of the grass court swing, and player rankings will be frozen until that time.

A statement on the ATP website reads: "After careful consideration, and due to the continuing outbreak of COVID-19, all ATP and WTA tournaments in the Spring clay-court swing will not be held as scheduled. This includes the combined ATP/WTA tournaments in Madrid and Rome, along with the WTA events in Strasbourg and Rabat and ATP events in Munich, Estoril, Geneva and Lyon.

"The professional tennis season is now suspended through 7 June 2020, including the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour. At this time, tournaments taking place from 8 June 2020 onwards are still planning to go ahead as per the published schedule.

"We are assessing all options related to preserving and maximising the tennis calendar based on various return dates for the Tours, which remains an unknown at this time. We are committed to working through these matters with our player and tournament members, and the other governing bodies, in the weeks and months ahead."

In addition, the statement took a sideswipe at the French Tennis Federation after their announcement that Roland Garros would be suspended was met with consternation among players.

"Now is not a time to act unilaterally, but in unison. All decisions related to the impact of the coronavirus require appropriate consultation and review with the stakeholders in the game, a view that is shared by ATP, WTA, ITF, AELTC, Tennis Australia, and USTA."