French Open tennis postponed until September because of COVID-19
This is the first instance of a Grand Slam tournament being affected by the virus that has spread around the world
Paris: The French Open tennis tournament was postponed for about four months because of the coronavirus pandemic, shifting from May to September.
The French tennis federation announced the decision Tuesday.
Main-draw matches for the clay-court tournament at Roland Garros in Paris were scheduled to begin on May 24.
This is the first instance of a Grand Slam tournament being affected by the virus that has spread around the world. The next major tennis championship currently on the calendar is Wimbledon, which is slated to start in late June in England.
The BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, a combined men's and women's event considered the sport's fifth major, was the first significant change to the tennis calendar when its postponement was announced March 8 because of COVID-19.
Last week, the men's and women's professional tennis tours began announcing cancellations of various tournaments in response to the viral outbreak.
The French Open originally began in 1891 as the French Championships and has allowed foreign entrants since 1925. The only years in its history the tournament was not contested were from 1915-19 because of World War I and from 1940-45 because of World War II.
The end of this year's tournament was supposed to represent the cutoff for ATP and WTA ranking points that would help determine which players were eligible to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics starting in late July.
AP Sports Writers Jerome Pugmire in Paris and Sam Petrequin in Brussels contributed to this report.