Roland Garros pushes main-draw start back a week, to September 27

Way back on March 17, Roland Garros rescheduled its 2020 tournament to begin on September 20 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It turns out that it wouldn't be the only time the clay-court major would have to shift its start date.

On Tuesday, the French Tennis Federation confirmed that the main draw of Roland Garros would move back a week, to September 27 (through October 11), with the qualifying tournament to be held from Sept. 21-25.

"After discussions with the different international tennis authorities (ATP, WTA and ITF) and subject to any health and safety obligations linked to COVID-19," read the update, "we are currently analyzing the option to slightly modify the dates of Roland-Garros 2020 in order to host the tournament over three weeks, from 21 September to October 11, 2020."

Whether the tournament is actually held is an entirely different subject, with organizers presumably at the mercy of COVID-19. The next scheduled Grand Slam tournament, the US Open, is scheduled to begin on August 24 in New York City—the epicenter of coronavirus cases, but which has seen its numbers steadily decline. On a conference call in April, USTA CEO Mike Dowse said the organization has "set a time frame around June" to make a decision on staging the event.

There have also been rumors of moving the east-coast tournament to Indian Wells, Calif., a location at a distance from a major metropolitan area, but which has the facilities to theoretically host a tournament of Grand Slam scale. Whether fans would actually be permitted to attend, however, is yet another story.

The new roof of Court Philippe Chatrier, at Roland Garros. (Getty Images)

The French Open's original rescheduling decision was cited as a reason for Laver Cup's postponement of its fourth edition, which was to be played Sept. 25-27.

“We needed to make a decision now on our event,” Laver Cup Chairman and CEO of TEAM8 Tony Godsick said in a press release. “We know our passionate fans will be disappointed that they have to wait an extra year for the Laver Cup in Boston, but this is the responsible course of action, necessitated by the emerging calendar conflicts.”

A calendar conflict remains, and more are developing. The following tournaments are scheduled to be held during the newly announced Roland Garros dates:

ATP: Chengdu, Sofia, Zhuhai, Beijing, Tokyo

WTA: Wuhan, Beijing