The ATP has announced some significant calendar updates, including a move of the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells to October!
To watch ATP Masters tennis from Indian Wells in October is a pretty crazy idea, but arguably much better than canceling the event for a second year in a row. This will be a 2021 exclusive and the tournament will then move back to its original location in the ATP calendar.
Elsewhere, the Stockholm Open, originally scheduled to run in Week 42 alongside the VTB Kremlin Cup (Moscow) and European Open (Antwerp), will now take place from 7-13 November in the same week as the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.
ATP Press Release
Today’s ATP Press Release announced that “the ATP continues to monitor the impact of COVID-19 in assessing the provisional Q4 calendar, including the three-week sequence of events in Asia, in order to ensure optimized player flow. Further updates, including confirmation of tournament dates and draw size for the BNP Paribas Open, will be communicated in due course.”
Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman: “Since the resumption of the Tour in August 2020, we have had to take an agile approach to the calendar with the aim of staging as many of our events as possible. Everyone in our sport has missed the BNP Paribas Open over the past two years and its return this October is great for tennis. The calendar is extremely complex and I would like to thank all events in that section of the season, as we look to accommodate these changes for the benefit of the overall sport.”
In other tournament news, the ATP 250 New York Open has this week announced its relocation to Dallas, Texas, from 2022.
I will keep you posted on other ATP Calendar updates as 2021 progresses, but we can all perhaps agree that the more tennis, the better!
