Wimbledon canceled due to Covid-19 pandemic

UPDATE: The All England Club announced on Wednesday that Wimbledon is cancelled.

Wimbledon organizers are going to cancel the 2020 tournament due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the German Tennis Federation Vice President Dirk Hordorff. The organizing group is scheduling a Wednesday board meeting at which point we will probably hear an official cancellation.

Numerous sports organizer are considering ways to host events behind closed doors without fans to get the ball rolling. Television money is huge for these events and while the pandemic is the most important things, hundreds of millions or billions is creating some incentive for organizers to try and host these events.

However, the All England Tennis Club does not want to play behind closed doors, accord to Hordorff, “and postponement was not without significant risk and difficulty.”

Rafael Nadal was a heavy favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook, sitting at +105 to win Wimbledon’s men’s tournament. The men’s side was viewed as a three-horse race between Nada, Novak Djokovic (+220), and Dominic Thiem (+300). Simona Halep was the favorite (+450) at DraftKings Sportsbook to win Wimbledon’s women’s tournament. She was followed by Ashleigh Barty (+800), and Kiki Bartens (+100).

This news comes following Roland Garros’ unilateral decision to postpone the French Open until September. There has been some outcry about the lack of communication with other events, creating confusion amongst players, according to Hordorff. And given the nature of the pandemic, there’s no guarantee that even late September would work for the French Open.