The WTA Tour will follow its usual schedule for most of 2021 despite the coronavirus pandemic, after organisers on Tuesday announced an updated calendar, which takes the season through to Wimbledon in July.
Having previously announced the first seven weeks of the season, this latest update details the schedule for the next 20 weeks of 2021.
The season starts on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, before players travel to Australia. Following Abu Dhabi this week, there will be two events in Melbourne in the run-up to the Australian Open.
The major change so far is the absence of the Indian Wells tournament, jointly held with the ATP which was postponed last month from its usual March date, while the Australian Open was delayed until February 8.
But other top-level events, including the Miami Open, Madrid Open and Italian Open, will all go ahead as usual.
“The current schedule reflects a traditional WTA Tour calendar for the majority of the season past mid-March,” the WTA said in a statement.
The Tour also said “alternatives are being assessed” for a new date to hold Indian Wells.
Further updates for the 2021 campaign past Wimbledon will be confirmed in “due course”.
This year onwards, WTA has also changed the classification of its tournaments to put its tour in line with that of the men’s ATP tour.
The tour’s highest Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 tournament categories will from 2021 be renamed WTA 1000, mirroring the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments which are one step down from the Grand Slams.
With AFP Inputs