South African tennis placed on ice

Indefinitely scratching the first half of the domestic season, Tennis South Africa (TSA) announced on Thursday that it had suspended all its sanctioned events until June 7.

The federation had previously postponed all its tournaments until April 20, in reaction to measures put in place by government to contain the coronavirus.

And while various other sports remained hopeful that action would resume in the first half of the year, TSA opted to extend its suspension by another 10 weeks, in line with decisions made by international tennis bodies.

“This is a rapidly evolving situation and no one can predict with any certainty what will happen over the next few months,” said TSA chief executive Richard Glover.

“As a result, it makes short to medium term tournament and event planning almost impossible.”

The suspension would extend to development centres and wheelchair tennis hubs, with TSA freezing all national rankings as the sport was placed on ice.

“While this decision will have a financial impact on our federation and the wider local tennis ecosystem, our single most important consideration is one of public health,” Glover said.

“We are committed to acting responsibly in that regard.”

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