ATP spreads the wealth amid China tourney crisis

The ATP’s autumn China schedule has been blown out of the water for a third consecutive season by draconian COVID restrictions in the PRC .

So the sanctioning body has scattered stardust on six new venues in order to plug major gaps in the Tour schedule.

Temporary one-year 250 entry-level licenses have been issued to cities ranging from Florence to Tel Aviv to insure that the show goes on. .

The new-look autumn calendar comprises:

19-25 Sep: San Diego, USA (Hard)
26 Sep-2 Oct: Seoul, KOR (Hard); Tel Aviv, ISR (Indoor Hard)
10-16 Oct: Florence, ITA (Indoor Hard); Gijon, ESP (Indoor Hard)
17-23 Oct: Naples, ITA (Hard)

Gone from the lineup are the prestige Shanghai Masters, Beijing’s China Open and the Zhuhai Championships

In addition, a once out-of-the way event in the Kazakh capital of Nur Sultan has been promoted to a 500-level tournament to be held concurrently with the longtime Asian highlight tournament in Tokyo the first week of October.

ATP boss Andrea Gaudenzi said in a statement: “As a global sport we continue to manage the impacts of the pandemic.

“Event cancellations are an unfortunate reality, but  at the same time, it’s incredibly encouraging to have many great cities step up to host ATP Tour tennis this season. 

“This shows the strong international interest in our product and validates the agile approach we’ve taken in responding to fast-changing circumstances.”