Kremlin Cup

ATP and WTA jointly announced on Friday that the 2020 Kremlin Cup tournaments in Moscow have been canceled by a mandate from health officials in the Russian capital, where there has been a surge in coronavirus infections.

However, the ATP's St. Petersburg tournament -- a more prestigious event scheduled to start in Russia's second-largest city just one week before the Kremlin Cup -- remains on the schedule.

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The ATP did not comment on the decision. The WTA said in a statement: 'The WTA continues to monitor the situation closely and work with medical experts, as protecting the health and safety of our WTA community is of utmost importance. The Tour continues to remain vigilant in managing this challenging situation and playing as much tennis as it is safe to do so.'

Kremlin Cup Tennis

The Kremlin Cup events were scheduled for back-to-back weeks beginning with the men's event on the week of Oct. 19. That one is an ATP 250, occupying the lowest rung in the ATP's three-tier main tour system. The women's event that follows is a WTA Premier-level tournament, which is also a third-tier tournament but in a more complicated WTA scheme. The St. Petersburg Open is a more prestigious ATP 500 event, second only to a Masters 1000. The numbers attached to the tournaments represent the number of rankings points earned by the winner.

The Kremlin Cup, created in 1990, was the first international professional tennis tournament held in Russia following the collapse of Soviet rule. Originally for men only, a women's event was added in 1996. Among past winners: Martina Hingis, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Simona Halep. The male champions include Marin Cilic, Richard Gasquet and defending champion Andrey Rublev.

Two other ATP 250 events in the same week as the Kremlin Cup are scheduled to proceed as normal.

The cancellation of the WTA event, along with the collapse of the fall Asian swing, means that the women's group now has just two tournaments left on the decimated 2020 calendar, a Premier in the Czech Republic and a lowly International-grade event in Limoges, France. Two other events that were postponed have not been rescheduled yet.

While the ATP St. Petersburg Open is still set to occur from Oct. 12-18, it was announced on Thursday that the ATP and WTA Kremlin Cup events scheduled to be held in Moscow have been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement shared by the WTA, the organization explained:

'Cancellation of the ATP 250 event, scheduled to run from Oct. 19-25, and the WTA Premier event, from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1, follows a recent increase in the COVID-19 infection rate in Moscow.

'As mandated by the Moscow City Administration, the event will no longer be permitted to go ahead in 2020.'

The WTA added:

'The WTA continues to monitor the situation closely and work with medical experts, as protecting the health and safety of our WTA community is of utmost importance. The Tour continues to remain vigilant in managing this challenging situation and playing as much tennis as it is safe to do so.'

Per Pete Bodo of ESPN, two ATP 250 events scheduled to occur the same week as the Kremlin Cup remain on the calendar. The number (250 in this instance) represents the rankings points earned by the tournament's winner.

The WTA, meanwhile, has only two tournaments left on its 2020 schedule that's been affected by the pandemic since March.

The French Open begins on Monday.

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