The BNP Paribas Paris Open in Indian Wells will be officially cancelled on Tuesday, at which point the early-season 2021 tennis schedules can be confirmed–at least in part.
With the Australian Open confirmed to be moving from late January to February 8-21 and the Indian Wells Masters getting scrapped, smaller tournaments can start scheduling around those developments. Many have already made their contingency plans–likely to become official later this week.
The Delray Beach Open, normally in February in between the Australian Open and Indian Wells, was forced to reassess its spot on the calendar because of the Melbourne move. It will now kick off the 2021 campaign, with qualifying set to begin on Jan. 4.
Prior to the year’s first Grand Slam, the only other event on the new schedule is either the ATP Cup or a new ATP 750 tournament during the first week of February. A location has not yet been determined. The inaugural ATP Cup was held at the very start in 2020 throughout various cities in Australia, but obviously that cannot happen in 2021 due to the country’s strict coronavirus protocols.
Immediately following the Australian Open, a trio of 250 events will take place starting on Feb. 22 (Montpellier, Cordoba, and a new tournament that has not yet bee announced). Another new 250 will join Rotterdam and Buenos Aires one week later (March 1-8). They will be followed by Doha, Marseille, and Santiago from March 8-14. Dubai and Acapulco will follow suit the week of March 15-21. All of those tournaments had previously been held in February or early March in between the AO and IW. The Aussie Open change forced them to find new spots on the calendar, and many were able to do so because of the Indian Wells cancellation.
In addition to Indian Wells, the only other post-AO coronavirus casualties so far are Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Pune. Auckland is the one pre-AO event that has been cancelled.
No Indian Wells…again…..So sad!!!
Yeah. Personally I’d be very happy to trade AO in on Indian Wells! You know, last year when Ellison pulled the plug I thought he was over-reacting. I mean, ONE case in a nursing home in the area? Turns out he made the right call.
To really experience the AO you have to watch it through the main broadcast in Australia otherwise it would be like any other international ATP event.
It’s the biggest sporting event in Australia for 2 weeks. I reckon your opinion would be different if you did that.
IW is a great Masters event but it’s no grand slam.
Courier and McEnroe are part of the commentary team each year. Courier has been doing it for almost 2 decades.
Since I don’t live in Australia….yes, I’m sure my opinion would be different if I did but as things are for me it’s the fourth slam by a considerable margin. Maybe if they moved it back to grass… Ah well, maybe we’ll at least get a decent clay season in 2021. I’m old enough to consider hard court to be a new-fangled invention made to cheapen court maintenance and end player careers early. Cheaper to make new young stars than pay the old ones!
I generally like Courier and I used to like J. McEnroe as commentators, but frankly, Mac’s been phoning it in for a couple of years now. I’d love to have an option to mute all the commentators.
Well, that’s the interesting thing isn’t it, most people watch the USO through a US broadcaster such as ESPN and you probably also watch the AO through ESPN so you never feel the authenticity of the local event and ESPN broadcast probably doesn’t do the tournament justice and comes across as slightly generic which is certainly not the case.
The AO is one of the best run events out of all the majors/masters and players love playing it to kick start the year. I’m not traditional/native Australian so I have no reason to be biased but Australian sporting events are of a very high standard.
Courier and McEnroe are just additions to the team, there’s also a few well known Australian commentators such Woodbridge and Robbie Koenig.
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Robbie Koenig is South African, not Australian. And thank God for that, because he is terrible to listen to. If I have to hear him say ‘he hud nooo right to hit that!’ or ‘genius of the highest order!’ or ‘tennis of the gods!’ one more damn time I might just lose it.
Koenig isn’t terrible. He’s actually pretty good. But yeah he does go over the top too often.
No offense…but “Phenomenadal” is the absolute worst lol.
I can’t stand Koenig’s obsession with Fed. I mute the sound, when I hear his voice.
https://www.atptour.com/en/news/atp-announces-updated-start-to-2021-calendar
The transamerica Slam is my favourite part of the year outside the grass season.I still think the AO is right up there with the other Slams.
Ive learned a lot listening to Koenig but am also getting sick of ‘Shank you very much’ , ‘Boomski’
Federer family behind Open withdrawal
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/federer-family-behind-open-withdrawal/ar-BB1cztV0?ocid=msedgntp
Anonymous AT 4:47 PM;
A top player is permitted to be accompanied by a maximum of two people from his team. How can somebody think that Fed would have been allowed to take his whole family with him?
It seems Fed was expecting special treatment or consideration of his circumstances given his response.
‘Dude, 39, four kids, 20 grand slams. I am no longer in that time to be away from my family for five weeks,’
Fed was probably in discussions with tournament organisers and when the outcome wasn’t what he wanted they decided to move on.
I understand the organisers position, they cant give special treatment to any player on tournament regardless of their circumstances and Fed cant be away from his family for an extended period.