WTA suspends tour until May 2; Stuttgart, Istanbul, Prague called off

In a Monday morning press release, the WTA announced that tournaments in Stuttgart, Istanbul and Prague will not be held, and that the tour is suspended until May 2.

Here is the complete announcement:

WTA statement on upcoming clay court swing:

*Due to the ongoing global coronavirus outbreak, the WTA tournaments in Stuttgart, Istanbul and Prague will not be held as scheduled. We regret this is the case for all of our loyal fans, players, sponsors and all those who support women’s professional tennis.

At this point in time, the WTA Tour is now suspended until May 2. We will make a decision in the week ahead regarding the remaining WTA European clay court events and will continue to monitor this situation closely and its impact on the 2020 WTA Tour season.*

The Porsche Grand Prix, a Premier-level tournament was scheduled to begin on April 20, was ostensibly cancelled when Stuttgart began restricting public movement a few days ago. The clay-court event was "off the table," Stuttgart Sports Minister's told Bild.

"The city of Stuttgart has not specified a specific period for the measures taken today. Therefore, we cannot say at the current time whether and in what form the Grand Prix can occur," a Porsche spokesperson was quoted as saying before Monday's announcement from the WTA.

That brings the effective length of the WTA suspension in line with the ATP, which had announced it was suspending play until April 27, the start of Munich and Estoril.

The WTA tour had previously cancelled events from Miami through Bogota. It has said it wants to attempt to allow tournaments to proceed.

Simona Halep, defending champion Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber were among the players scheduled to compete in Stuttgart.

Additional reporting from Kamakshi Tandon.