Wimbledon cancelled to counter pandemic

The 2020 Wimbledon Championships have been cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the All England Club announced Wednesday. This marks the first time Wimbledon has been cancelled since the Second World War in 1945. The Grand Slam grass-court tournament will next be held from June 28-July 11, 2021.

British Grand Prix organizers have set an end-of-April deadline to decide whether the country’s Formula One race goes ahead as scheduled in July or becomes another casualty of the coronavirus.

The race, a highlight of a British sporting summer that looks likely to be wiped out by the pandemic, has been the best attended on the F1 calendar in recent seasons with a total crowd of 351,000 last year.

The Sunday turnout at the former airfield in central England was 141,000 in 2019, with the race close to home for seven of the sport’s 10 teams including Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. Britain’s Hamilton won at Silverstone last year for a record sixth time. Formula One’s season has yet to start, with two races cancelled and six more postponed so far.

The 41st edition of golf’s biennial women’s amateur Curtis Cup tournament, due to be held in June at Conwy in Wales, has been rescheduled to 2021 due to the coronavirus, organizers said on Wednesday.

The Royal & Ancient and U.S. Golf Association said revised dates would be issued in due course. The Cup, a contest between Britain and Ireland and the United States, had been scheduled for June 12-14.

The biennial Ryder Cup between Europe and the United States is still scheduled to go ahead at Whistling Straits, Wis., from Sept. 25-27.

UEFA bowed to the inevitable on Wednesday and suspended all Champions League and Europa League soccer matches “until further notice” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

European soccer’s governing body also said all national team games scheduled for June have been postponed, including playoff matches for Euro 2020, which has been moved to 2021.

The finals of Europe’s elite Champions League competition, second-tier Europa League and Women’s Champions League, all of which were scheduled for May, had already been postponed.

While most leagues in Europe hope to finish their domestic seasons once restrictions on movement and social contact are lifted, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said last week the season could be lost if play does not start by the end of June.

One possibility on the table at UEFA, in case of a long delay into the summer, is to complete the European club competitions with a mini-tournament.