The French Open tennis tournament has been postponed until September 20-October 4 amid the coronavirus outbreak, organisers of the season's second Grand Slam said on Tuesday.
It was initially scheduled to be played from May 24-June 7.
“In order to guarantee the health and safety of all those involved in the preparation of the tournament, the French Tennis Federation decided to organise the 2020 edition of Roland-Garros from 20 September to 4 October 2020,” the French tennis federation said in a statement.
“While no one today can predict what the health situation will be like on May 18 (when qualifications were due to start), the lockdown measures in force make it impossible to prepare for it and therefore to organise it on the dates initially planned.”
The brand new roof on the main Philippe Chatrier court has already been installed but was not in service yet and needed more testing until the end of April, added officials.
