Alexey Selivanenko, General Director of VTB Kremlin Cup, told Izvestia about the reasons for canceling the Moscow tournament this year.
According to him, this decision was the only correct one. In addition, both the organizers of the competition and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association looked at the situation in the same way. (WTA).
“There is one big reason for the cancellation of the tournament – COVID-19, but inside it there are small reasons. Such as different morbidity in all countries, uncertainty with the resumption of regular international flights, uncertainty with the procedure for issuing visas, uncertainty with the need to undergo quarantine after the tournament in the countries where the players will fly further, ”said Selivanenko.
He noted that each issue can be individually solved, but in the aggregate, this outweighed the situation.
Selivanenko stressed that this year, due to the situation with the spread of coronavirus, the tournament has lost the Krylatskoye stadium, where there is enough space to comply with the medical protocol. At the same time, a strong line-up of players was not expected at the Kremlin Cup.
Instead, the St. Petersburg tennis tournament will take place on schedule. Its status will be upgraded from ATP-250 to ATP-500. A tournament of this category has never been held in Russia before, Selivanenko stressed.
Read the details in the exclusive material from Izvestia:
In two counts: tennis tournament in St. Petersburg promises to collect stars