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Professional tennis season now suspended through to 7 June 2020

Joint statement by ATP & WTA: After careful consideration, and due to the continuing outbreak of COVID-19, all ATP and WTA tournaments in the Spring clay-court swing will not be held as scheduled. This includes the combined ATP/WTA tournaments in Madrid and Rome, along with the WTA events in Strasbourg and Rabat and ATP events in Munich, Estoril, Geneva and Lyon.

The professional tennis season is now suspended through 7 June 2020, including the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour. At this time, tournaments taking place from 8 June 2020 onwards are still planning to go ahead as per the published schedule.

In parallel, the FedEx ATP Rankings and WTA Rankings will be frozen throughout this period and until further notice.

The challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to professional tennis demand greater collaboration than ever from everyone in the tennis community in order for the sport to move forward collectively in the best interest of players, tournaments and fans.

We are assessing all options related to preserving and maximising the tennis calendar based on various return dates for the Tours, which remains an unknown at this time. We are committed to working through these matters with our player and tournament members, and the other governing bodies, in the weeks and months ahead.

Now is not a time to act unilaterally, but in unison. All decisions related to the impact of the coronavirus require appropriate consultation and review with the stakeholders in the game, a view that is shared by ATP, WTA, ITF, AELTC, Tennis Australia, and USTA.

Learn about the Swiss' breakthrough in his home country
Stan Wawrinka was borne in Lausanne, Switzerland, about an hour’s drive from Geneva. So, it’s only fitting that the Swiss star has enjoyed a love affair with the city’s ATP 250 tennis tournament.

Wawrinka made his first ATP Tour final at home in 2005, when he advanced to the Gstaad final. But it took him 11 years to make another championship match in Switzerland, and that came at the 2016 Geneva Open.

Then 31, Wawrinka arrived in Geneva searching for form. He had lost three of his previous four matches entering the tournament.

But the home favourite, who was World No. 4, lost only six games in his first two matches against strong clay-court players Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Pablo Carreno Busta, respectively, and he didn’t look back. After outlasting Lukas Rosol in a three-set semi-final, Wawrinka defeated then-World No. 11 Marin Cilic 6-4, 7-6(11) to capture his first ATP Tour trophy in Switzerland.

"It's a dream come true to be able to win a title in Switzerland, after all these tournaments," Wawrinka said. "To be able to do it here in Geneva, in the event's second year, is something special. The fans were great. They made a lot of noise today."


The stands at the Tennis Club de Geneve Eaux-Vives were completely packed. When Cilic missed a final backhand long, everyone rose to their feet in celebration after their man won a hard-fought final.

"Marin is a great player," Wawrinka said. "He really ramped up the pressure toward the end, with those set points, so it was nice to be able to finish off the match."

Wawrinka wasted little time winning another tour-level title in Switzerland, retaining his trophy the following year in Geneva.

Once again, the Swiss arrived at the tournament having lost three of his previous four matches. But Wawrinka was inspired by his home fans and one extremely special fan: his daughter, Alexia. He beat Mischa Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

"I’m extremely happy to win my second title in Switzerland. It means a lot to me,” Wawrinka said. “This is the first time that my daughter is in the stadium when I won a title, and that makes it even more special."


Did You Know?
Wawrinka also enjoyed success in Geneva on the ATP Challenger Tour. He earned two of his six titles at that level in Geneva, triumphing in 2003 and 2004.

After hosting an indoor hard-court tournament from 1987 to 2009, Lyon returned to the ATP Tour in 2017 with a new clay-court event: the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon.

The tournament, one of five French ATP Tour events, would have been held this week if not for the Tour suspension due to coronavirus.

ATPTour.com looks at five things to know about the ATP 250-level tournament.

1) French Finalists
In each edition of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon, a French player has reached the final.

In 2017, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga survived two three-set matches before overcoming Tomas Berdych in straight sets to lift the trophy. Last year, Benoit Paire defeated #NextGenATP Canadians Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime en route to the title.

In 2018, Gilles Simon fell in three sets to Dominic Thiem in the championship match.


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2) A Stellar Debut
The first edition of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon featured Top 20 stars Milos Raonic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych and Nick Kyrgios. The draw also included French hopes Simon and Paire, as well as Juan Martin del Potro and Borna Coric.

The top three seeds — Raonic, Tsonga and Berdych — advanced to the semi-finals. Tsonga and Berdych contested the championship match in what proved to be their 13th and final ATP Head2Head clash (Berdych leads 8-5), with Tsonga prevailing 7-6(2), 7-5.




3) Fantastic Felix
Three months after reaching his maiden ATP Tour final at the Rio Open presented by Claro, Felix Auger-Aliassime made an impressive debut in Lyon. After a straight-sets win against John Millman, the #NextGenATP Canadian earned back-to-back three-set victories against Steve Johnson and Nikoloz Basilashvili to reach the final. The 18-year-old was unable to capture his maiden ATP Tour title, as Paire claimed the trophy after 80 minutes.

4) Doubles Drama
In 2018, Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock captured their first title as a team in dramatic fashion. The Australian-American duo did not drop a set en route to the final, where they faced Roman Jebavy and Matwe Middelkoop.

Kyrgios and Sock, who entered the contest with a 10-2 team record, trailed 8/9 in the Match Tie-break before claiming three straight points to earn the title. It was Kyrgios’ first ATP Tour doubles crown and Sock’s third trophy, with as many different partners, that season.

Sock, Kyrgios

5) The Final Preparation For Roland Garros
Held the week before Roland Garros, alongside the Geneva Open, the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon provides ATP Tour stars with a final opportunity to prepare for the clay-court Grand Slam championship.

In the past two years, Lyon champions have reached the Round of 16 or better at Roland Garros. Dominic Thiem advanced to the championship match in 2018, while last year’s champion Benoit Paire reached the fourth round in Paris.

Learn more about the Geneva Open, an ATP 250 event

Staged at the Tennis Club de Genève at the Parc des Eaux-Vives, the oldest and largest tennis club in Switzerland, the Geneva Open is one of three Swiss events on the ATP Tour.

The tournament would have been held this week if not for the Tour suspension due to coronavirus.

ATPTour.com looks at five things to know about the ATP 250-level tournament.

1) A Star Studded Honour Roll
Alexander Zverev is the latest star to add his name to an impressive honour roll at the ATP 250 event. Previous champions include Bjorn Borg (1981), Mats Wilander (1982-’83), Henri Leconte (1986), Thomas Muster (1991) and Stan Wawrinka (2016-’17).

Wilander also features in the list of doubles champions. Other doubles titlists include Sergio Casal/Emilio Sanchez (1985), Sergi Bruguera/Marc Rosset (1991), Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah (2015), Jean-Julien Rojer/Horia Tecau (2017) and Oliver Marach/Mate Pavic (2018-’19).

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2) Swiss Success
Since the tournament began in 1980, four editions of the event have been won by Swiss players. Claudio Mezzadri became the first home champion in 1987, capturing the only ATP Tour singles title of his career with a straight-sets victory against Tomas Smid. Two years later, Marc Rosset joined the club, beating Guillermo Perez-Roldan to capture his maiden ATP Tour trophy.

In 2016, Wawrinka beat Marin Cilic to become the third Swiss player to take the title in Geneva. The three-time Grand Slam champion returned the following year to become only the second player in tournament history to win back-to-back titles in the city, following in the footsteps of 1982-’83 champion Wilander.

Wawrinka

3) 2015 Return
After a 14-year absence, Geneva returned to the ATP Tour in 2015. The event featured Top 10 stars Wawrinka and Marin Cilic.

Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci ended a three-year title drought, beating Marcos Baghdatis, Denis Istomin, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Santiago Giraldo and Joao Sousa to take the trophy. It is the most recent ATP Tour trophy of four-time tour-level titlist Bellucci’s career.


4) An Epic 2019 Final
From match point saves to rain delays, last year’s final was packed with drama.

One month after failing to convert match point against Nicolas Jarry at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Zverev saved two match points against the Chilean to take the Geneva trophy 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(8).

Zverev arrived in Geneva with a 6-8 record in his previous eight tournaments, searching for form. The top seed also survived three-set matches against Hugo Dellien and Federico Delbonis en route to his first title since the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals.


5) Final Preparation For Roland Garros
Held the week before Roland Garros, alongside the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon, the Geneva Open provides ATP Tour stars with a final opportunity to prepare for the clay-court Grand Slam championship.

Since the tournament returned to the ATP Tour in 2015, Geneva winners have followed their title runs with quarter-final or better performances at Roland Garros on three occasions. Two-time winner Wawrinka reached the semi-finals in 2016 and finished as runner-up in 2017, while 2019 champion Zverev reached the quarter-finals in Paris last year.

Learn about the special gift Wawrinka received from his home event in 2016
Stan Wawrinka won one of the biggest titles of his career at the 2016 US Open, and one of his home country’s tournaments certainly took notice.

Later that year, the organizers of the Geneva Open presented Wawrinka with a sweet surprise: a replica US Open trophy handmade entirely of chocolate!

Watch over 165 classic ATP Tour matches from the 90s

The full-size trophy, carefully crafted from several kilos of chocolate, took two full days to build and was given to the Swiss star at a pre-tournament press conference. Then World No. 4, Wawrinka won his first title on home soil in May 2016 in Geneva.

“This is a lovely idea from the tournament,” said Wawrinka. “The trophy looks great, what a nice surprise! It’s good that I already started working on my fitness with Pierre Paganini.”

Wawrinka asked how long he could keep the chocolate trophy and was told it would be edible for about a week. The tournament wrapped and delivered the trophy to him following the presentation to ensure it would arrive intact.

Perhaps that made his victory in Geneva the following year, when he retained his crown, even sweeter.

Wawrinka

Those aren’t the only special moments Wawrinka has had at the ATP 250 tournament, though. In 2016, he helped launch the Geneva Open tram. He joined Tournament Director Thierry Grin, organisers and media, taking the tram from Place de Neuve to the United Nations.

“The tram looks great. It’s a very nice initiative from the tournament,” said Wawrinka. “It’s always a pleasure to play at home, especially here, in my region.”

Learn how the Canadian has found his best form in Lyon
Felix Auger-Aliassime, the Canadian #NextGenATP star, is from Montreal. But early in his career, the 19-year-old has found himself at home in Lyon.

Last year, Auger-Aliassime arrived at the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon searching for form. After making the semi-finals in Miami, the Canadian didn’t win consecutive matches in four straight tournaments.

“Lyon is special for me,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Every time I come here, I feel like I’m at home.”

That’s because Auger-Aliassime won the Lyon Challenger in 2017 and 2018. In 2017, at just 16 years and 10 months, he became the eighth-youngest titlist in ATP Challenger Tour history. By retaining the trophy the following year, Felix became the youngest player in history to successfully defend a Challenger crown.


Auger-Aliassime’s love affair with Lyon showed from the start of the 2019 Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon. Felix, who was World No. 28 at the time, was the youngest Top 30 player since Lleyton Hewitt in 1999. He got his tournament off to a strong start by beating scrappy Aussie veteran John Millman 7-6(3), 7-5.

In the quarter-finals, the 18-year-old battled past experienced American Steve Johnson 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, to set a semi-final showdown against powerful Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili. Felix found his back against the wall in that match, as Basilashvili was up a set and held a 0/40 advantage on the Canadian’s serve at 4-4 in the second set.

Auger-Aliassime hit a gutsy forehand winner at 15/40, and defended his second serve well at 30/40 to hang on, before finding some of his best tennis to eliminate Basilashvili 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.

“I stayed pretty calm compared to yesterday [against Johnson]. I think I adjusted that pretty well. I think if I got too frustrated, I probably would have lost in two sets,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Probably wouldn’t have saved those break points at 4-all. That’s a key for me. That’s been a turning point this year, and obviously in this tournament, to be able to get over any mistakes, to keep on playing.”

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In February 2019, Auger-Aliassime made his first ATP Tour final at the Rio Open presented by Claro. Now, he had another chance at tour-level glory.

“I came here because I thought maybe something good could happen. I felt good two years in a row in this city, and here I am in the final,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I can’t ask for anything better. It was tough matches throughout the week, but I think I’ve been able to get through every time against tough opponents.”


Auger-Aliassime wasn’t 100 per cent physically in the final against Benoit Paire, experiencing groin pain. The Frenchman beat him for the Lyon title 6-4, 6-3, and that pain ended up forcing Felix to withdraw from Roland Garros. But nevertheless, Auger-Aliassime was happy that for the third consecutive year, he was able to find some of his best form in Lyon.

"I had a good week even though it didn’t end the way I wanted, not playing the way I wanted or being physically well," Auger-Aliassime said. "There’s disappointment because these finals don’t come around often but there’s a lot of positives to take from that week. Hopefully I give myself other chances for titles.”

Relive the Frenchman's lone clay-court title
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has won 18 tour-level titles and reached 12 more finals, but only one of those 30 instances came on clay: the 2017 Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Lyon, which was the event’s clay-court debut.

Tsonga arrived in Lyon having only won one match since February. On 18 March 2017, his first child, Shugar, was born. The Frenchman had plenty of confidence from winning titles earlier in the year in Rotterdam and Marseille.

But Tsonga also had been dealing with shoulder pain, withdrawing ahead of his second-round match at the Mutua Madrid Open and pulling out of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Tsonga needed three sets in his Lyon opener against Carlos Berlocq.

“It was a great atmosphere today. The stadium was full. I am very happy to go through this round,” Tsonga said. “It is really important for me to play back-to-back matches."

Watch over 165 classic ATP Tour matches from the 90s

The Frenchman’s next opponent was a tricky one in the powerful 20-year-old Karen Khachanov. But the second seed began to find his form, defeating the Russian 6-0, 6-4.

“I am really pleased that after playing two-and-a-half hours yesterday, I was feeling great today and didn’t have any pain with my shoulder. This is key for me. I need to be healthy,” said Tsonga. “Today was definitely a better match. I hope that I will keep this rhythm for the upcoming matches.”

Tsonga did just that against another big-hitter in Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, overcoming a second-set blip to reach the final with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 victory.

“It was good for me to play a long match like this,” said Tsonga. “I haven’t played a match this long for a while. I am not playing my best level, but I am giving everything mentally and that gives me confidence.”

Tsonga needed to take his level up even further in the championship against Tomas Berdych, who had won eight of their 12 ATP Head2Head clashes. The Frenchman was able to do so, celebrating his third title of 2017 with a 7-6(2), 7-5 win against the Czech.

“I am very happy. First title on clay court. It is now added to my CV, and I can move on,” Tsonga said. “It has been a great week overall.”

Top seed defeats Jarry in Centre Court thriller
Editor's Note: ATPTour.com is resurfacing features to bring fans closer to their favourite players during the current suspension in tournament play. This story was originally published on 25 May 2019.

Alexander Zverev cemented his marathon man status on Saturday at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open. The top seed clinched his first ATP Tour title this season by winning his third consecutive three-setter, saving two match points against a determined Nicolas Jarry to prevail 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(8).

“It was a very tough match. He was playing aggressively, serving big and hitting everything he can," said Zverev. "I thought I was in control until the rain came, but I’m happy to find a way. I felt it could have gone either way.”

The German had struggled for form since finishing runner-up this March in Acapulco (l. to Kyrgios). Zverev arrived in Geneva with a 6-8 record in his previous eight tournaments, including an opening-round loss to Jarry last month at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, which saw him squander a match point. He now has 11 ATP Tour titles, all of which have come in less than three years.

"When I start playing good, I don't worry about titles. I know that I can be one of the best players in the world when I find my rhythm," said Zverev. "This week definitely helped with that."

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Zverev also survived three-set battles this week against Bolivian Hugo Dellien and Argentine Federico Delbonis to reach the final, but the extra on-court time helped his game. He hit 41 aces this week, with 35 coming in his past three matches. Zverev led the tournament in first-serve return points won (38%, 100 of 263).

Jarry powered into the Geneva final without dropping a set. He went into Saturday’s final leading the tournament in second-serve points won (67%, 54 of 81), service games won (95%, 37 of 39) and break points saved (78%, 7 of 9). The 23-year-old still seeks his first ATP Tour title, having also finished runner-up last year in Sao Paulo (l. to Fognini).

“I don’t have the words to talk about it. I did my best, had some chances and fought until the last point. It didn’t go my way,” said Jarry. “I just have to keep on fighting and give myself the chance to compete for another title.”

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The match appeared to be firmly in Zverev’s hands at the beginning. He raced out to a 3-0 lead and comfortably took the opening set before rain halted proceedings with Zverev leading 6-3, 0-1.

Play resumed after 90 minutes and it was Jarry who came out of the gate first. A backhand error from Zverev gave the Chilean the lone break of the second set to lead 4-2, but a second rain delay took place right after Jarry held in the next game. After another lengthy suspension, Jarry maintained his advantage to send the match into a deciding set.

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Both players traded service holds to force a third-set tie-break. A pair of groundstroke errors from Jarry gave Zverev a 3/0 lead and the top seed rode that momentum to a 6/3 advantage. Jarry refused to budge, saving the first championship point with a stretch backhand volley winner. He followed it up with a forehand winner and forehand volley winner to even the score at 6/6.

A double fault from Zverev gave Jarry his first championship point at 7/6, but the Chilean hit a routine volley into the net. Another championship point came and went at 8/7 as Jarry misfired on a forehand. Zverev laced a difficult backhand passing shot winner at 8/8 to earn a fourth championship point and made good on his opportunity. As Jarry sent a forehand long and dropped to his knees, Zverev raised his arms in triumph as he wrapped up the win in two hours and 36 minutes.

Zverev picked up 250 ATP Ranking points and €90,390 for his week. Jarry earned 150 ATP Rankings points and €48,870.

Both players will now turn their attention to Roland Garros. Zverev, seeded fifth, start his campaign against Aussie John Millman, while Jarry faces a challenging opening test against eighth-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro.

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