2024-04-03 14:40:11
Published on April 3, 2024 at 4:40 p.m.
The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic started, will once again host a WTA tournament this year, five years after the last edition.
When Aryna Sabalenka lifted the Wuhan tournament trophy in September 2019, no one could have imagined that the Chinese city would no longer host a Premier 5 tournament (the equivalent of the Masters 1000 for men) for five years. The words “covid” and “coronavirus” were then only known to specialists, and Shuai Peng was eliminated in the first round by Garbine Muguruza. But a lot has happened since the fall of 2019, and it was only this Wednesday that the organizers of the Wuhan tournament announced its return to the WTA calendar, from October 7 to 13, 2024. “We are delighted to announce the return of the WTA 1000 tournament to Wuhan, and to rekindle the thrill of elite tennis competition in one of Asia’s most dynamic cities,” said Jorge Salkeld, vice president of organizer Octagon Tennis, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
Chinese tournaments only returning in 2023
A few weeks after the end of the tournament in 2019, the coronavirus pandemic began in Wuhan, this city of 11 million inhabitants which was the very first in the world to be confined. Due to the pandemic and very strict health measures in China, the country had not organized ATP and WTA tournaments until 2023. Furthermore, on December 1, 2021, the WTA decided to suspend the possibility of organizing tournaments in China as long as Shuai Peng was not free in his movements and words. A month before, the player had published a message in which she accused a high Chinese dignitary of rape. Message deleted immediately. But in April 2023, the WTA decided to cancel this suspension. “After 16 months of suspended tennis competitions in China and continued efforts to respond to our initial requests, the situation has shown no signs of changing. We have concluded that we will never completely achieve these objectives, and it will be our players and our tournaments who will ultimately pay an extraordinary price for their sacrifices,” the women’s tennis body said at the time. Seven tournaments, often richly endowed, took place in China and Hong Kong last season, but not in Wuhan. But the Wuhan Open will be on the calendar in 2024. Who will succeed Petra Kvitova, Venus Williams, Caroline Garcia and Aryna Sabalenka?
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