One of the biggest tournaments outside the Grand Slams, the Indian Wells Open will not be held at its scheduled time in 2021.
According to an official release, the ATP and WTA Indian Wells will be postponed from its typical March dates to a later time this season. The rescheduled dates are yet to be announced by the officials.
In an official statement, the ATP said:
“Alternative dates are being assessed for the tournament to potentially take place later in the year.”
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The Indian Wells Open was one of the first tennis tournaments to be cancelled in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic first struck the country, and the rise of cases of people getting infected in recent times had resulted in there being question-marks around the event.
This competition, along with the Miami Open constitute the Sunshine Double with the two held in a back to back schedule in March.
With the Australian Open postponed to February, it might have become difficult for players to travel from Australia after the year’s opening Grand Slam to California for this event.
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However, the Miami Open will remain on schedule for now, kick-starting late in the month of March.
The tennis calendar has already seen multiple changes to it since last season, with five months of tournaments cancelled and a severely curtailed men’s and women’s tour played out from August 2020.
Even this season has had its issues with the Australian Open postponed for the first time to February and all the lead-up events played as a part of the Australian Open series to be held in Melbourne.
There are no ATP or WTA tournaments scheduled between the second week of January and February 1 either as a result.
The tennis season starts with the Delray Beach Open and Antalya Open on the ATP side and the Abu Dhabi Open on the WTA tour in the first week of January.